Outsider Chronicles: Strike Out

Most Outsiders are reborn after death, but I wasn't. I actually found myself in an Afterlife. Just one problem, its not the afterlife I was expecting. No fluffy clouds or harps for me, just swords, Demons and utter chaos. Dear god, I'm boned!

And we're back. Nothing to say here, other than enjoy!

Chapter 2

My entrance into the Academy went without too much fanfare, other than some excitement over my unusually high Spiritual Pressure, and I found myself placed in the advanced class. To my surprise, the first few days at the Academy was almost identical to my Freshers Week at Uni, although thankfully without everyone catching a case of Freshers Flu. It did come with a lot of people advertising clubs, getting drunk and generally acting like a bunch of University students.

But eventually, classes really got started and my first proper one was Zanjutsu, taught by a blind old man by the name of Yoriichi who, despite his age and disability, was one of the strongest people who taught in the Academy. Supposedly, he had briefly been a part of the 13 Court Guard Squads, but had quickly requested to be reassigned as a teacher at the academy. Considering his amazing skill with a blade and his equally incredible skill at teaching, Yamamoto had quickly agreed. Since then, the quality of swordsmen coming from the Academy had skyrocketed.

For some reason, I couldn't help but feel like I should recognize the guy, but I could never really figure out why.

Either way, the guy was GOOD. He seemed to have a knack for finding the best way to get the best out of his students, to the point where even those like me who had never really handled a blade before had a good grasp of the basics by the end of just one class. He could also precisely gauge the skill levels of everyone involved and pick out the best sparring partners to appropriately better the students.

Incidentally, my sparring partner for the day would (rather surprisingly) go on to be one of my closest friends.

I'd never really been much of a fan of Shuhei Hisagi. His design never landed right and, while he had a really cool concept for a Zanpakuto, especially with the reveals made in the light novel, his entire philosophy always seemed really silly to me. However, after spending the lesson sparring and later eating our lunch together since we had been told by Yoriichi-sensei to chat after the class to see if we could learn anything from observations our opponent had made, we ended up hitting it off remarkably well and going on to become friends, with some other classmates who aren't really relevant.

Honestly, aside from that, my years at the Academy weren't all that interesting. I mean, they were absolutely for me, but there is a very good reason why Harry Potter skims over most of his lessons. That being said, there was one thing that interested me and resulted in me spending a lot of time rooting through the record and archive rooms that I had access to, as well as the law books of the Soul Society.

What I expected to find was an ass load of black ink and a million hoops to jump through for unhelpful archivists and what little information I could find to be hilariously skewed if not outright propaganda. Instead, I found that I had almost complete access to all of the laws and decisions made by Central 46 over the centuries and some very clear and blatant reasons as to why I didn't have access to those that I couldn't. As it turns out, being in charge of the Afterlife under the command of what was basically God meant that when certain laws are set in stone, it means something. Central 46 was not an organisation of hidebound old men more interested in keeping a hold of power for the sake of it, they took their jobs SERIOUSLY and made damn sure that they did it well.

Even the more…unsavoury decisions made were on full display with no (obvious) attempt to hide them. From the decision to wipe out the Quincies, to the ending of Project Spearhead and even the eradication of the Bounts (which implied I'd have to deal with them, lovely) and even a few others, such as when the Soul Society had been forced to cull Souls in the Rukongai to stop the Balance from being disrupted.

Of course, it was still a governmental body manned by people, so corruption wasn't unheard of. Apparently, thats what had resulted in the Bount genocide, a few members of the body decided that they couldn't abide the 'insult' to exist and acted on their own. When that had come to light, the people responsible had been booted into the depths of the Maggots Nest along with the rest of the corrupt idiots who thought it was a good idea to put personal power before the good of every Soul in existence.

And, of course, there were the law books. Every law Central 46 had put in place was laid out clearly and in plain terms that even an idiot could understand, even repealed ones, including a number that would be remarkably handy once Rukia ended up in trouble.

So, with all that in mind, you might wonder how Aizen could possibly get away with his antics? Well, Kyoka Suigetsu is a powerful force multiplier, but the other reason was because it looked like I was the first person to actually come down into these archives in the past few centuries. All the information in the world does precisely jack shit if no one knows about it.

Maybe I should look into getting accredited as a Soul Lawyer?

Anyway, that aside, things continued as normal at school and time flew by and before I knew it, I was in my final year and one of the highest ranked students to boot. I honestly hadn't expected that considering that I hadn't exactly been the most diligent student in my last life, but apparently learning to be a Grim Reaper with a magic sword works wonders for focusing in class. The fact that I already had enough Spiritual Pressure to be classed as a Seated Officer certainly helped.

As one of the (really) advanced students with enough power to qualify for potential Seated positions straight out of school, I, along with Hisagi and a few others, were occasionally taken on low level missions to deal with Hollows. They were…not really all that interesting to be honest. Most of the Hollows were incredibly weak, to the point that even first years could probably deal with them without issue and we always had plenty of backup. The idea was for us to get some experience on the field, not to put us in any danger after all.

Of course, even the less advanced students needed SOME training with dealing with Hollows and how to perform Konsu, so in our final year, as part of our training, we were assigned to take our kohai out to do just that. Those like me and Hisagi were generally put in charge because of our high marks, with us alternating between being the guide for the newbees and being in charge of the barrier/looking squad who made sure that Hollows didn't decide to come and make a snack of our charges.

You might be able to see where this is going.

"God damnit, I hate being on the barrier team," I grumbled as my friends and I made our way from our field trip planning meeting towards the cafeteria for lunch.

"Well you did draw the short straw," said Hotaru Kanisawa, one of my classmates who I'd ended up making friends with as we headed from the Academy Senkaimon down to the cafeteria in search of lunch.

"Doesn't make it any less annoying," I muttered, "Its always so dull…"

You'll be fine," said Aoga, "Besides, it means WE won't be bored for a change."

"Hey now, no whining," said Hisagi, "Its all important work after all."

"I know, but its still boring," I said, "Ah well, at least it should be a short…OOF!"

I was cut off as we rounded a corner and I ran into someone coming the other way. Now, I'm not exactly the biggest guy around, but the person I walked into was even smaller and lighter, so they bounced while I just stumbled slightly.

"Oww," said the girl.

"Ah, sorry about that," I said, offering a hand to the person I'd hit, "I wasn't looking where I was going…"

I trailed off as I actually saw who I'd run into.

Despite lacking the extremely recognizable bun, there was still no way to mistake Momo Hinamori for anyone else and holy shit, she was even more adorable in real life than in the Anime.

"Its fine, I wasn't watching either…" said Momo, reaching up to take my hand, only to trail off as our eyes met.

There was a brief moment where everything seemed to disappear, then my asshole friends decided to intervene with a synchronised throat clearing. Momo let out a yelp and shot to her feet.

"OhmygoshI'mlategottagosorry!"

With that said, she zipped around the corner and disappeared. I let out a huff as I tried to get my heartrate under control, then turned a glare on my grinning friends.

"Not. A. Word," I said.

"I wasn't going to say anything," said Hisagi.

"I, however, will," said Aoga, "I didn't think you were into the small, cute type Ikki, I would have thought you were more of a big and busty type."

"Or the serious librarian type," said Kanisawa, "Hell, theres a good portion of the school who are convinced that you and Hisagi are a thing."

"Wait, WHAT!?" spluttered Hisagi, "Where did THAT come from?"

"You two are pretty well known nad are often seen together, so a number of lower classmen have decided, based on that alone, that you two are fucking," said Kanisawa, "And its not just you two either."

Hisagi looked mildly disturbed at the idea.

"Happens to all the popular people," said Aoga, "Frankly, I don't care, the only thing I care about is whats actually true. So, do you want some advice for talking to her?"

"Not from you," I said, "Now come on, lets go gets some lunch before Hisagi falls over."

I ignored my 'friends' jabs as I headed off in the direction of the cafeteria.

Hours later, I was in the World of the Living, perched on top of a tall tower in the abandoned factory area that had been chosen as the location for todays field training, double checking the multi-layered Kido barrier that had been set up around the area.

"Alright, that looks good," I said, getting to my feet and tapping my radio, "All units report in."

"Everything looks fine over here."

"Nothing here either."

"This is boring!"

I sighed.

"Yes, we know, but please be professional," I said, "Don't forget, this is graded for us as well."

"I know, I know. All clear."

"Thank you Midoriya," I said, "Aizawa, anything on your end?"

I waited, but there was no response. I frowned and tapped the radio.

"Aizawa, report."

"Is something wrong Toujou?" asked one of my teammates.

"I can't reach Azawa's team," I said, "Hang on, Midoriya, your closest, go check on Azawa."

All I got in response was static. I frowned, worry now coiling tighter in my gut as a rather nasty suspicion began to take root.

"Sayuri, check on…"

I was cut off by a sharp burst of static that made me flinch.

"Somethings happening," I said, drawing my sword, "Get ready everyone! High alert!"

My Teammates all tensed, drawing their own swords and looking around. I had a nasty feeling that I knew exactly what was going on, but there was no way I was going to let those Huge Hollows get me or my squad without a fight. The only problem was that the damn things had the power to hide their presence from Soul Reapers. I could try Kido, but Kakushitsuijaku took time to set up and I'm not really that good with Kido anyway. Damn it, I needed…

A sudden shock made me duck, just in time to avoid a claw strike that managed to gouge two of my teammates.

"SCATTER!" I shouted and dove off the tower.

The remaining team mates all shook off their shock and reacted. Unfortunately, I was too late to react and before I could reach the ground, something slammed into me and sent me flying. I hit the wall of a nearby building and smashed through it, along with the next three, ending in a heap of dust, rubble and pain. I'm fairly sure I'd broken a few bones there.

"Damn, that hurt," I groaned, "Gotta call Hisagi and…"

I reached for the radio, only to find that it had been completely shattered. I groaned and let my head fall back. The only cold comfort was the fact that Hisagi and Aoga would survive. I didn't have much faith in the rest of my squad though. They were decent enough fighters, but still just Academy students who were no match for the Huge Hollows that could hide their presence that well. And that assumes that Aizen and his goons wouldn't mop up any that survived.

The sound of concrete cracking under a great weight made me look up, just in time to see one of the Hollows force its way into the room. It was a smaller specimen, although still large, with a humanoid form, stone coloured skin and a horned mask. Its glowing yellow eyes swept the room and landed on me. It let out a growl and stomped forwards.

I let out a sharp breath and tried to get to my feet, only to nearly fall as my abused limbs screamed in protest. The only good thing was that I still had my Asauchi and the sword was even intact, although I somehow doubted that I could actually do anything with it against this thing. I probably didn't stand a chance on my own.

"You're Not alone."

I stiffened as I felt a new presence appear behind me and, without thinking, whipped around. As I did, black clouds swirled out of nowhere and I found myself stood in a very familiar swirling storm of black storm clouds. I relaxed slightly and looked up at where the glowing eyes of my Zanpakuto looked down at me from within the storm.

"Hello Ikki," said the Spirit in a soft, feminine voice, "I've been waiting for you."

"You certainly have dramatic timing," I said, "Why now? Its not like I haven't tried to get in contact with you."

"It takes a lot of practice to be able to reach your Inner World," said my Zanpakuto, "Even for someone like you, who has a fully mature Spirit, actually connecting to it intentionally is far harder than you'd think."

"So what changed?" I asked.

I got the impression of a smile.

"The Souls power increases dramatically when it is placed in mortal danger," she said, "As it stands, this situation you find yourself in has provided the final push you needed."

"Huh, so its not just for dramatic effect," I said, "Soooo…what now?"

"Now, I think its time for me to introduce myself," said the Spirit as her eyes shifted and rose up slightly.

Then, they seemed to shift forwards and began to float down towards me. As they did, the swirling storm began to retreat, revealing a floor covered in fine gravel that had been raked into a swirling pattern of tome shapes and, directly across from me where my Zanpakuto Spirit had been standing, a large, twisted cherry tree with glowing purple blossoms.

It also revealed my Zanpakuto and the moment I saw her, my jaw dropped.

Then, my eyes snapped open back in the real world and I felt pure power surge through me. I shifted my grip on my Zanpakuto and straightened, making the Hollow pause. I ignored it as I slowly returned my Zanpakuto to its sheath and took a deep breath.

"Thunder, NARUKAMI!"

Thunder roared.

Ya know what? I feel like I've been typing this a lot, but that'll do. I was going to go further, include the fight and stuff, but that can wait. This is a good place to end it.

So, heres something fun, I originally planned for Ikki's Zanpakuto to be based on the Ancient Dragons from the Souls games, but that has kinda…gone out the window. Anyone want to guess what it is now? The design of the Hollow is actually kinda a clue, although its element is different. The name and look of his Inner World also applies here.

Yes, I plan to pair Ikki up with Momo. I actually really like her and she doesn't deserve what happens to her. Plus, most of the other characters I could use are either spoken for or wouldn't work with this character, so theres that. The pairing won't be for a while though.

Yes, I do plan for Ikki's knowledge of the law to pay a part later.

I'm probably being entirely too idealistic over the laws and rules put in place to govern Central 46, but it stands to reason that a group created by God to watch over the Souls of the Dead would likely have some pretty stringent and harshly kept rules in place to keep them in line. Plus, outside of the Bounts which are filler, there aren't actually any known…iffy decisions made by the body. Of the ones we know about, they were all, to my eye, entirely reasonable based on the information they had available to them. The only possible exception was Tosens friend and we honestly don't have any information about that. Even Nanao's mother makes sense when you consider that she 'lost' a weapon meant to fight fucking GODS!

And with that, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!