Disclaimer: I still don't own Bleach...
The day I died
The second chapter – Confusion and
destruction
~Soul Society, Rukongai~
Ichigo completely faded into nothingness. He closed his eyes awaiting something that hadn't come. He was expecting something to drag him somewhere, the fear of death not yet leaving his side. All of a sudden his mind went blank, like a canvas that was already painted on, but then painted on with new white paint. All his memories of his life fading, memories of his family, memories of his friends, memories of his life, all of his memories disappeared as he opened his eyes again. He was met with the bristling sound of leaves and the chirping of birds; it was like a dream, so peaceful yet so restless.
Ichigo looked down to see himself sitting in the grass, wearing nothing but old and worn out clothing. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, if anything it complemented the humid air that seemed to want to cook him alive.
Ichigo laid down in the grass, closing his eyes yet again. Simply enjoying the cool breeze, the warm glow of the sun and natures fresh air.
'I could stay here forever' was the only thought he had for this beautiful moment of peace, only to be taken out of his trance by a wild bush. Something was moving; it was fast and quiet. Ichigo tilted his head, why would someone interrupt his daydream like this.
He was surprised when he was met with big golden eyes and long dark brown hair. He was taken aback by the sudden close proximity between him and the woman.
She looked at him for a moment, until she looked down "Did I frighten you?" to which he tilted his head "It's because of my reiatsu… Everyone runs away!" she shouted, tears forming. She noticed he was simply frozen by her sudden appearance. She moved back, thinking it was her massive reiatsu's fault.
Ichigo got back to his senses, he was trying to figure out what reiatsu meant. "You did scare me there…" he looked at her again, she was slightly shorter than he was and was clothed in rags, her golden eyes complementing her face; she had long eyelashes and light pink lips. 'What's reiatsu?', was Ichigo's only thought, after all she was annoyed at this reiatsu thing a lot. He thought he might be able to help her out.
She looked at him again, her eyes no longer locked on the ground, he looked like a confused child trying to figure out something incomprehensible. She smiled warmly "Reiatsu is every soul's spiritual power, we have it in us", she pointed at herself "I have a multitude more reiatsu than regular souls, so they banished me out of Rukongai…" she frowned at the thought.
Ichigo nodded several times "What's Rukongai?" Ichigo deadpanned, they were in a forest with no city or districts. "All I see it trees..." He looked at her, "Do you guys called forests Rukongai?"
It was her queue to raise an eyebrow at him, she knew he had way more reiatsu than her, she could feel it even if she was miles away from him. Even at the distance she made between them, it was still smothering her. 'Maybe he's from a far away land?'
"The Rukongai are districts in which normal souls like us live. There are eighty in four directions, making it a total of three hundred and twenty districts." She said in a proud manner and Ichigo nodded, amazed at this discovery.
"If there are places for us normal souls to live, why aren't you there?" Ichigo wondered, noticing her look saddening.
"As I said earlier, my reiatsu was too much for them to handle." She said angrily, gritting her teeth at disgust of the other normal souls.
"They couldn't handle your reiatsu… I don't get it." Ichigo nodding at his own confusion.
Her moodiness instantly disappearing "Reiatsu isn't only spiritual power it's also spiritual pressure. The more you have the harder it would be for normal souls to handle being around you…" she looked at him noticing the change in his eyes.
"Well I don't feel any different now that you're next to me, than when you weren't. Maybe they're just mean people?" he looked at her with his trademark scowl.
"I thought you figured that part out already…" She said while giggling at his innocent remark.
"I still don't get it." Ichigo sighed.
"Well, let's see how to explain this." She looked around, gathering several sticks and rocks. "Let's say a single stick is a normal soul."
Ichigo nodded.
"And let's say my reiatsu is this rock." She pointed at a moderately sized pebble.
Ichigo raised an eyebrow, but nodded nonetheless.
"How many sticks do you think it'll take to break the rock?"
"How many..." Ichigo looked at the woman in front of his as if she were insane.
"Exactly. You cannot even compare the two."
Something clicked inside Ichigo's mind, "It's that big of a difference?"
'He's starting to get it.' The woman simply nodded.
"Now here comes the questionable part..." He took the pebble that represented her reiatsu into her right hand and a larger stone into her left. "How many pebbles would you say it would take to even chip this larger stone?"
Ichigo thought for a moment, "Depends where you hit it, doesn't it?"
The woman tilted her head, "That's not what I was trying to say..." '
Though it isn't wrong either... The round pebble could definitely do damage to the rock if it struck the correct place, especially on such a deformed stone.'
"What I was trying to say is that this stone represent your reiatsu."
Ichigo looked at it for a moment again, "Meaning it's more than you...?"
The woman nodded, "Significantly more."
'Frighteningly so...'
"You made a good point earlier." The woman continued.
"About hitting the right spot?"
"Exactly. As you can see, the pebble, representing myself if round and smooth. The stone on the other hand is round and deformed."
Something clicked again, "Meaning even though you're weaker... you're stronger?"
"Correct."
Ichigo frowned, "So... Having all this reiatsu is actually a bad thing."
"That's why I was exiled." The woman nodded.
"Exile, huh." Ichigo continued to stare at the stone.
"Though there is salvation for even monsters like us."
"Salvation?"
"A place where we aren't shunned for our strength."
"Where's that?"
"Come follow me." The woman stood up and signaled Ichigo to follow her.
~World of the living~
Rukia was finally done with her three month long position in the living world. She sighed in relief, her last hours were peaceful. She looked up to the moon remembering the orange haired boy that, literally, blew her away. 'His reiatsu was captain level or maybe even higher. How could a boy with that kind of reiatsu stay hidden in the living world.' She pondered; moments later being brought back from her thoughts by a non-ranked shinigami.
He was the next to be stationed in Karakura town "Good work, Kuchiki. Now it's my time to shine!" he smiled at her before a sudden report of a hollow sighting "I'd give you company, but it seems I already have a date with a hollow" he swiftly waved goodbye to her and flash stepped towards the hollow.
She smiled at his goofiness, simply turning and opening a gate to Soul Society.
~Soul Society, Rukongai~
Ichigo and his mysterious acquaintance came to a rundown shack in the middle of nowhere. There were rumbling sounds and shouts coming out of the shack. Ichigo stopped suddenly, he noticed something "Uhm, I know it's late to ask, but who are you?" he asked with a slight blush on his face.
The mysterious woman, laughed lightly "I am Juna Kira, I am from a branch family of the lesser noble clan Kira." She looked at the shack "In there are shinigami proctors that will examine you and give you a grade, after you get your grade you will be sent to a more accepting place.
Ichigo nodded with a smile, until it turned into a scowl "Wait a second, if you're a noble how could normal souls banish you?" he narrowed his sight.
Juna simply laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of her head "Oh about that…" she looked away with a light blush "…I sort of lied about that" she pouted at him when he laughed at her expression. "I can't trust everyone I meet, there are some devious souls around these parts." She said seriously.
They made their way into the rundown shack, only for Ichigo to notice that it was massive; the outer appearance masking the massive training hall that it was. Ichigo stared at some people clad in black training, they all had regular swords but were moving at speeds incomprehensible to Ichigo.
Juna noticed Ichigo stopping before also noticing that he hasn't even mentioned his own name. Frowning at the thought, she turned and walked up to him, snapping a finger in front of his face, managing to get him out of his trance.
"Hmm?" he hummed "What's up, Juna?"
"You still haven't even mentioned you own name…" she tilted her head.
Ichigo's eyes widened at the thought "I'm…" he forgot "I forgot."
'What was my name again?' only to be scared half to death by a voice coming from his head.
'How will you call my name, if you don't even know your own? Hmm…" the voice had several echoes and had a higher pitch, but it sounded like it was his own voice. It was a familiar feeling, he felt this before 'But when?'
Juna noticed his absent look and was about to snap her fingers again, only to be stopped by his increasing reiatsu. It wasn't only her who noticed his reiatsu, it was everyone in the massive training hall. Some simply turned to look at Ichigo, while others chose to ignore it.
'My name…'
'What kind of man forgets his own name?'
It was only moments later that Ichigo was met with a fresh breeze, slowly opening his eyes. He was lying on hard concrete, sitting up he looked around. It was desolate, only an infinite surface of gray concrete.
He was met with the sight of a shadowy figure 'Because you forgot your name, all of this land is now flat and empty. It was filled with the tallest skyscrapers imaginable, their height reflected your potential as a human, soul and even shinigami.'
"Shinigami...?"
'He wasn't told yet...'
Ichigo took another look at the desolate place. The space he was sitting on was a concrete square large enough to be the foundations of a skyscraper. He also noticed that the whole surface of this realm was full of these squares. It must've been the truth. "And what of it?" Ichigo asked sternly.
'He's feisty!'
The shadowy figure scoffed at Ichigo's attitude 'Nothing, nothing at all. I just wanted to show you the state that you are in. Remember who you are first and I shall tell you what's next.'
Ichigo thought about those words, not noticing that he was back from the weird desolate realm. He blinked multiple times before noticing that he was surrounded by several men clad in black and Juna. "I'm…" he looked deep in thought, a quiet and soft woman's voice coming to his mind 'it means to protect' and after them came a child's laughter. "…Ichigo." he uttered, his reiatsu exploded pushing the shinigami back. He tilted his head as he looked at Juna.
Juna looked pleased. "Okay then Ichigo. What do you proctors think?" she turned to see most of them gasping for air, only one standing strong smirking. 'Being the main proctor I'm not surprised' Juna thought.
"I can always trust on your sensory ability Juna. This one has some reiatsu." He went to his desk, taking his pen and filling up a paper that was placed earlier on his desk. He was done quickly as he flash stepped in front of Ichigo. "This is your grade, I will place you into the academy immediately. Even though the year already started three months ago, I trust you will advance with ease."
Ichigo eyed the man carefully before taking the paper. The briefly looked at the grading section '… Reiatsu level: A+' there was an arrow pointing towards the grade, next to the arrow was a note 'The reiatsu level when he hadn't tried to disperse it, when he released his reiatsu it would be around S+ level."
Ichigo wondered about these grades, next to him was Juna who eyed the note as well, just that she looked shocked. She turned to face the proctor, grabbed his arm and dragging him away from Ichigo.
"I know your sensory skills are far above the average shinigami, but S+ when he released his reiatsu?" she whispered, making sure Ichigo hadn't heard. "Even some captains hardly have S, there must be a mistake!" she whispered, though keeping her composure was hard after seeing the grades, so she shouted the second part.
"It could be higher. I'm not sure myself right now, I am wearing reiatsu disrupting armor and it still overwhelmed me."
Ichigo on the other hand had no idea what these grades meant. He was slightly nervous as Juno shouted 'Mistake'. Was he not qualified to enter?
'You worry too much, Ichigo. Let these idiots talk it out first.' The echoing voice said in his mind. Ichigo mentally nodded and calmed himself. He didn't know why but the voice in his head was soothing to him and gave him confidence.
Juna and the proctor turned and walked to face Ichigo "I will have to first teach him how to seal his immense reiatsu. It might distract other students too much…"
'…and the instructors as well' the proctor thought as he chose not to add it to his sentence.
"I will teach you here until you learn to contain your reiatsu." With his final words he pointed towards a training area, it was filled with shinigami. They were all calmly sitting and meditating. "Let's start!" the proctor had a mischievous grin as he made his way to the other shinigami, leaving a dumbfounded Juna and a confused Ichigo.
"I thought I failed the examination. I guess you asked him to take me in as a favor?" Ichigo scratched the back of his head.
"Not at all... You're more then suited." She waved her hands.
The proctor was sat on a mat and crossed his legs, putting each hand on one knee. Ichigo followed suit, he was sat directly in front of his new teacher.
"Listen carefully Ichigo, most of the students at the academy have already learned some abilities and arts. Because of that I will have to quickly teach you everything you missed out."
He looked to his side, picking up a sheathed unnamed Zanpakuto, he presented it to Ichigo "This is an unnamed Zanpakuto. It is a normal blade at this moment, but when you achieve a greater state of meditation you will be able to communicate with your Zanpakuto. To achieve a greater state of meditation you will first have to learn how to properly meditate."
The proctor gave Ichigo one of the two unnamed Zanpakuto. He took the other sheathed Zanpakuto and placed each end on his knees, placing his hands on each end as well. Ichigo followed suit, coping his teacher perfectly. He felt something in his chest but ignored it, thinking it was just an itch.
"Now all you have to do is close your eyes and calm your breathing. After some time you should enter your inner world and meet your Zanpakuto. The reason why you need to learn you Zanpakuto's name is so you can seal your reiatsu into it, right now you don't have anything to store your reiatsu into and it keeps leaking out, but when you learn your Zanpakuto's name your reiatsu will be sealed and kept in check by you." Said the proctor as he stood back up and moved to his desk.
Ichigo did as he was told, closing his eyes and calming his breathing. Time seemed to slow down as he meditated. After some time he felt cold concrete under him, opening his eyes he was met with the shadowy figure revealed. It was a mirror image of Ichigo just that he was completely white with black sclera and golden pupils. Ichigo was confused when he saw another man standing behind his mirror image 'Wasn't this where I meet my Zanpakuto? Why are there two people in here?' Ichigo thought as he walked closer to his mirror image.
"You finally came and with your own will at that." Said his mirror image, grinning maniacally at the sight of Ichigo.
"Welcome to your inner world Ichigo." Said the young looking man behind his mirror image.
Ichigo also noticed that he was now clothed in a black shihakushō like all the other men that were training. He also had his unnamed Zanpakuto with him resting on his girdle still sheathed.
"So you're my Zanpakuto?" Ichigo asked in confusion, not knowing which of the two to look at.
Both of them looked at Ichigo before they fused together. Ichigo narrowed his sight, the younger man now had white hair and a white shihakushō as well as one golden eye with black sclera. "You need to find out my name... Don't you?" The materialized Zanpakuto pulled an unnamed Zanpakuto out of his shihakushō and charged at Ichigo.
Ichigo swiftly drew his unnamed Zanpakuto, trying to parry in time only to be cut across the chest.
"I don't have to tell you my name..." Was all his Zanpakuto said as he continued his barrage of attacks.
He was getting more cut up as the fight went on.
Each strike drawing more blood.
But to Ichigo's surprise, the wounds didn't hurt.
Outside Ichigo's inner world was chaos, his reiatsu was increasing and pushing everyone back, some shinigami had trouble breathing, others were frozen in place by the sheer amount of pressure there was. The main proctor simply sat at his desk smirking at the feeling of wild reiatsu, people usually had calm and composed reiatsu, but Ichigo's reiatsu was wild and unrestraint. The chaos of the training hall was an added bonus, seeing his colleagues make a scene was gold; he had to thank Ichigo afterwards. Smiling at the thought he went back to work.
The fighting didn't stop as Ichigo racked his brain to figure out his Zanpakuto's name. "I have to know your name before this ends." Ichigo proclaimed, parrying an attack targeting his chest.
'A parry!' his Zanpakuto thought. 'He's learning fast!' He smirked as he continued his attacks.
"Figure it out Ichigo! You already know my name..."
"How can I know your name when I've only just been told you exist."
"How come I knew your name the whole time then, Ichigo?" his Zanpakuto said as he dodged Ichigo's first counterattack.
Ichigo was getting tired from all the constant attacks. He got used to the speed that his Zanpakuto moved, now managing to parry all of his attacks. Ichigo huffed from exhaustion, glaring at his Zanpakuto.
"Getting tired already, Ichigo?" his Zanpakuto igniting Ichigo's flames once more. He wasn't going to let Ichigo rest just yet, with a smirk he leapt toward Ichigo. "We only just started as well. Don't pass out yet!"
Ichigo frowned as his battle hungry Zanpakuto leapt at him, not allowing him to take a breather. "How could I figure it out, if you don't allow me to think?" Ichigo grit his teeth as he blocked a kick directed to his side.
"Why would I let you think after all this time, this is my first fight after a long time, I should be allowed to enjoy this!" His Zanpakuto's voice echoed through his inner world.
His Zanpakuto's speed increased. Ichigo tried to counter with full force only to be cut again. Ichigo coughed up blood, noticing another swing coming in from his Zanpakuto he blocked, but the full force attack from his Zanpakuto simply shattered his unnamed sword after which his Zanpakuto kicked him to the ground with enough force to shatter some of the concrete foundations.
Ichigo's body felt numb, bleeding furiously from all his wounds and coughing blood. He hardly managed to stand up, dragging himself up to his unnamed sword. The only thing left was the hilt. His Zanpakuto landed in front of him looking down at Ichigo. "You broke my Zanpakuto, how am I meant to fight you now?" Ichigo said softly, looking down at his broken sword.
"You call that a Zanpakuto?"
"A Zanpakuto shattering even if his owner is in danger - is a disgrace and can't be called a real Zanpakuto." His voice echoing through Ichigo's mind "That empty shell you're holding isn't a real Zanpakuto and it certainly isn't yours."
Ichigo looked up to see his Zanpakuto, it had a sad look on its face as it looked directly into Ichigo's eyes. "I am your true and only Zanpakuto, Ichigo!" Ichigo looked awestruck as he nodded.
It finally hit him, the name he had forgotten.
He was brought back to his senses, surrounded by several shinigami looking at him in awe.
Ichigo stood up and screamed, "Cast aside fear; Zangetsu!" Ichigo once again exploded with reiatsu, the force behind the reiatsu was strong enough to blast the part of the hall into oblivion. Ichigo's drawn unnamed blade now turned into two separate blades.
The proctor practically jumped out of his seat as he saw dual blades. 'I had heard only two shinigami had dual blades, ever.' His eyes widened further when he saw that they looked like different from each other. 'I had heard that Captains Kyoraku and Ukitake have dual blades, but their blades look the same, his blades look distinctly different from each other!'
One of the blades almost had the length of an unnamed Zanpakuto, it had no curvature it was completely straight and had no crossguard. Its color could only be described as the darkest night. It had a slight red glow to it as if it was leaking red reiatsu. The second blade was the weirder one, it was hardly more than half the length of an unnamed Zanpakuto. Its crossguard was also missing, only to be replaced by hilts on each side. It was completely white and glowed with a silver aura, as if it had its own type of reiatsu.
Ichigo looked that his new blades only to smirk "You guys are quite the opposites in this world, never imagined the white Zangetsu would appear black in this world." After he had remembered Zangetsu's name they separated into their own bodies, only to fuse when needed.
'You trying to start a fight, Ichigo?!' White Zangetsu shouted inside his head, annoyed at Ichigo's remark.
'I prefer myself being shiny, this way more people acknowledge me as your blade.' Black Zangetsu said, annoying White Zangetsu in the process.
'You trying to start a fight as well?!' White Zangetsu shouted as he started chasing after the already running Black Zangetsu.
Ichigo snickered at the thought of having such a crazy part of his soul. Brought back to his senses he noticed what his release had done. It completely destroyed a quarter of the training hall, in the process knocking out most of the shinigami. He looked toward the smirking proctor "You're going to repair this hall before you go anywhere…" he narrowed his sight "I hope I made myself clear?" to which Ichigo cringed and nodded in defeat.