Journal 19 - Entry 1
I never gave much thought to the afterlife. Sure, I grew up in the Bible Belt, Georgia specifically, but beyond going to church as a child it never really stuck. I didn't do well in school, and couldn't find a purpose, so when a military recruiter showed up at my high school, I decided I could find a purpose there. As soon as I graduated high school, I went straight into the Marine Corps, and I was shipped out for a tour in Iraq as soon as I was out of basic.
Turns out, that was the purpose I was looking for. Probably makes me fucked in the head in the eyes of normal people, but after my first tour, coming back to the US and civilian life was agonizing. I just couldn't readjust. I knew I was a jarhead for life, and my life would probably end on the battlefield. I'd made peace with that.
In early August our squad had been deployed near Fallujah with the 108th Cavalry. I was part of an armor column moving to a base in the Triangle of Death when we were ambushed. An IED scrapped the Humvee leading the column, and I tried to get behind the nearby Abrams, but it was too late. But then, something I never could've guessed happened. I felt a sharp pain in my head, then I was standing over my body with a chain leading down from my chest to my remains. A few of the other guys that had also been killed were the same as me, and we tried to join back into the fight, but our hands just phased through everything.
Couldn't help but laugh. We'd ended up as a fuckin' ghosts. We didn't get much time to think about it, because a crazy dragon thing with a white mask flew out of some portal and started attacking us. It just started killing indiscriminately. Turns out the world after death isn't exactly peaceful. I'd soon find out just how true that statement was. As quickly as it had shown up, a person wearing what looked like a black kimono with a samurai sword showed up and killed the monster almost effortlessly. When she approached us, we finally got a good look at her, and it was very surprising. It was a girl who was clearly a child. She had light brown hair, and eyes of the same color. She introduced herself as Jōtōhei Miho of the 5th Division. We were shocked when she gave a strange military rank that sounded Japanese. Later we learned that Jōtōhei was roughly the same as my own rank, that being Lance Corporal.
Five of us survived the monster. Me, Nick, Logan, Regan, and Jess. But now came the real shocker. There's no point in recounting the entire thing here, but suffice to say she's a Soul Reaper, and part of a task force assigned to locations around the world that are at war to try and recruit fallen soldiers. That brings us to the craziest part. It turns out the entire afterlife is in the middle of a World War 2 scale war.
She gave us two choices. Either we could peacefully pass on, we lose our memories, but end up in a massive sprawling city called the Rukongai where if we were lucky we'd not get swept up in the conflict. That would also mean being under the rule of some empire called the Wandenreich. Honestly, I know I shouldn't trust a biased source, but this Wandenreich sounded Nazi as fuck. I made up my mind instantly. I knew I'd die on the battlefield. It's how I wanted to go out. That hasn't changed. The only thing that has changed is the war I'm fighting. So I decided to join, and the others agreed. That seemed to make Miho happy.
We were taken to another fucking dimension. Honestly it all felt like a fever dream. But everything was moving so fast, we didn't really have time to question it. We were a giant castle thing that was functioning as the de facto capital for the Soul Reapers. I call it a castle, but that's massively underselling it. You could probably fit all of Manhattan in here. We were immediately taken to "test our reiatsu". Miho was explaining things on the fly, but it was hard to keep up. What was easy to pick up, was that we were getting sent to Soul Reaper basic. That much I can deal with.
We were assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 5th Division. Apparently they'd suffered heavy losses in a recent battle, and we were the FNGs here to replace them. Miho left, she had her mission after all, and we were thrown into basic under Shōsa (Major) Urokodaki.
Something else I should probably mention is the language issue. We thought we'd need to learn Japanese, but when we first got here we went through some evaluation by the medical division, and they used some spell on us that gave us inherent knowledge of how to speak Japanese. It's surreal.
Once we finally started training, it was shocking. The others in our training class were civvies that had clearly never touched a weapon or bloodied their hands. Some of them looked as young as preteens. I guess seeing Miho should've clued us in. I talked to the Shōsa in private, apparently souls age slower, so they were older than they looked, but still child soldiers were unsettling. This was a result of how badly their war was going. When they showed me some examples of the atrocities these Quincys were committing… Well, let's just say that was motivating.
At this point, I'm a week into basic, and as odd as it sounds, the drills are comforting. I guess it's the sense of familiarity. I do miss my M4, though. It was explained why we used katanas and these archaic bolt-action rifles, but I don't have to like it.
Apparently, since we've already got combat experience, we're being shipped off next week to a place called the Menos Highlands, which is where the heaviest fighting is happening. Is it bad I'm looking forward to the rush of combat again? Maybe, but I can't change who I am. Me and the others will take on anything that gets thrown at us. The Warlords take on the afterlife. From what they've said, the Quincy winning this war means the destruction of everything as we know it, including the US and our friends and family back home. So while we're technically under a different banner, the way we see it, we're still fighting for the same cause. I died for my country, and I'll do it again.
Semper Fi, bitches.
.
LCpl Ryan Nash
2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines
& 5th Division, 1st Battalion of the Gotei
August 10, 2005
Author's Notes:
I'm not dead! See, I told you, if I don't say this fic is dead, it's not dead. Basically, I just kinda lost motivation and ideas for a while, and TBH, I'm not fully back yet. This chapter just came to me, but only because it focused more on a soldier than actual Bleach lore. I write best when my brain is hyper-focused on a setting or world, and I haven't really been immersed in the Bleach world for a while. The main reason is simply that the anime isn't airing. When the anime starts again, I'll end up back in the world and the ideas should start coming back.
As for this chapter, I was actually playing Cyberpunk oddly and that just kind of made me think about how people die in wars all over the world, so that would mean there would be a lot of souls with combat experience ripe for recruiting. IDK, maybe this is getting a little too real by involving real world wars, but to me, that's a small plot hole that's a little too obvious to overlook.
Military Jargon Note: FNGs = Fucking New Guys & "The Warlords" is the nickname for the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines of the USMC.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you at an unknown point in the future ;)
