Quiet Reverence

Prologue

"Ugh… Why me?" The young Shinigami complained to themself as they moved through what seemed to be hundreds of old, dusty boxes and stacks of paper. This was the kind of job that they always seemed to end up getting stuck with. The assignment they'd been given was to find a box with X markings on the side and bring it to the Captain's office.

"I know I just joined the squad, but Captain Kurosaki is such a slave driver. Here I thought serving under the hero of the Great War would be a glamorous honor." The Shinigami continued to mutter out loud to themself. Granted, they knew they hadn't exactly wowed the final exam proctor at the academy, and they hadn't achieved Shikai yet, but not everyone was Tōshirō Hitsugaya, dammit.

"I scored top of my class in history, that's got to count for something, right? Not to mention I just had to be in the same class as that pompous brat Ichika Abarai. She had Shikai by her second year! I heard she was even getting one-on-one training with the Lieutenant of the 11th Division! That threw off the curve by so much."

At this point they were so caught up in their complaining, they didn't even realize how unstable the box they were moving was, and the entire shelf of boxes collapsed around them.

The collapse kicked up a cloud of dust causing the Shinigami to cough. They let out a frustrated sigh. "Why does Captain Kurosaki even have so many of these old documents? From all the stories about him, he sounded like he was never the kind of guy to keep this many records."

Maybe it's stuff from before the Great War. They briefly reasoned. The Captain may be looking for stuff that could be used to commemorate the fallen from the War. The 20th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Las Noches, and the formation of the United Alliance of the Realms was fast approaching, and Memorial Day preparation was already underway.

"Apparently the festivities this year are going to be insane. It's always a day of remembrance and celebration, but I heard that representatives from the Lichtreich will be coming as a show of good faith." The Shinigami continued to mutter to themself, while moving aside another layer of dusty boxes.

Using their back to shove an entire shelf covered in boxes to the side, it revealed a small alcove with a couple of other boxes stuck in it.

"There it is!" They accidentally let out a shout of relief. Whoops, hopefully nobody heard that.

In the middle there was a fairly large cardboard box, about ⅔ of a meter tall and a meter wide. It had big X's written on all four sides, so it was definitely the box they were looking for. They reached in and pulled it out from the alcove. It turned out to be surprisingly heavy.

"Yes! There we go!"

After they got it out, they could see that the top of the box was open.

That can't be good for the stuff in there, they thought.

The Shinigami decided to clear out some of the dust, to at least make it more presentable to Captain Kurosaki.

"Hopefully he won't mind me peeking inside."

When the Shinigami started clearing off the dust, they took a closer look at the contents of the box, and what they saw truly amazed them.

"Woah, these are reports, documents, and journals, stuff from the Great War; some of these are written by current Captains and Lieutenants, some by legends that fell in the line of duty, and some are by people I've never even heard of." The Shinigami whispered in quiet reverence as he carefully rifled through the papers. As a huge history buff, this was the Holy Grail. The chance to read first hand accounts of the Great War was an opportunity way too tempting to pass up.

"I guess that explains why Captain Kurosaki wanted these before Memorial Day." The Shinigami said looking from one journal to the next, handling them with equal parts care and awe.

They weren't in any particular order, as if they had been just thrown into the box haphazardly when they had been originally stored. There were just as many loose pieces of paper as there were complete journals, some torn, others crinkled, and even a few with burn marks.

"Captain Kurosaki said they had a Captain's meeting this afternoon, and both Lieutenants had to go with him, so I've got hours before they get back." The Shinigami said furtively.

And so this unnamed Shinigami reached in and grabbed the first piece of paper and excitedly (and slightly apologetically) started reading, and what that Shinigami read that day changed them forever. That Memorial Day, his squadmates wondered why this Shinigami displayed such an array of emotions during the festivities.

From that day on, that Shinigami devoted themself fully to getting stronger and reaching ever higher. When asked for the reason they did so, the only answer they would give would simply be to honor those that came before. No one would ever truly know what motivated that change, but what that Shinigami read in that dusty closet, they would carry with them for the rest of their life.

Author's Notes:

I hope you enjoyed the prologue! If it wasn't clear, you are that Shinigami! Congrats! But seriously, this is pure setup and this perspective won't be seen again. From here on out it's going to be purely epistolary. They won't be in any order, but some entries may be published out of order. Part 2 of an entry may come out first, then ten chapters later you'll get part 1, and it'll be up to you to piece it together! A big part of the fic is letting you, the reader, interact with the story. Maybe an entry will mention "The Battle of XYZ" in passing and you can imagine and fill in the blanks as to what might have happened, then another entry will add something else, etc.

I do want to be clear this is my first fanfic, so I don't know how long this will last or really where it'll go. I do however have a rough timeline of events made, and I have who all the Captains and Lieutenants are at the end of the war, major character deaths, and can work back from there.

Some journals will come from named characters that we all know and love, others will come from "boots on the ground" soldiers and really highlight what a war is like to the average shinigami footsoldier.

Maybe you could even throw a character you'd be interested in seeing in the reviews. I've got early stuff planned out, but IDK maybe you could convince me ;)

Thanks guys, and I hope you can enjoy this story.