Memories of a Broken Soul

Chapter 1: Awakening

Disclaimer: I do NOT own bleach. But you already knew this so why bother.

“Normal speech”

‘Thoughts’

#1#

Heavy eye lids slipped open very slowly, almost as if something were preventing him from doing so but he was to stubborn to care. His amber eyes were completely open and the first thing he saw was a wooden roof, he was lost in the wood like if he wasn’t even seeing it when his eyes were very much staring straight at it. His thoughts were all jumbled up and he couldn’t form coherent conclusions.

He was very much lost in thought as he didn’t move an inch from the soft surface he was lying on. He heaved out a slow breath to straighten out his thoughts, letting eye lids slide closed once more to try and think slowly and with all the logic he could muster.

His thoughts wondered to the last thing he remembered, the rain drops, the numbness… he had died, hadn’t he? He felt like he was going in circles, every single thing he tried to remember to try and make a logical conclusion drove him to a sole one… he was dying at that moment.

He opened his eyes once more and this time turned his head to look at his right. A shoji door. He blinked to try and get the illusion out if his head but it never left. He turned back to look at the roof before returning to his thoughts.

‘Okay, there are no shoji doors after death… well if you die as a human and go to soul society yes but that’s not the point. I died in soul society as a… shinigami?’

He was thoughtful to himself before nodding to no one in particular.

‘Yes, a shinigami. That would mean I would be reincarnated into the cycle of souls. So what am I doing he-… Where am I?’

As he glanced this time to his left he saw a beautiful garden, the doors on that side were open so he could see perfectly clear a green garden with some flowers here and there. Once he had stared rather intently at the garden he just couldn’t reject it any longer. He just hadn’t died. That was the answer, so now the next question.

Where the hell was he?

He carefully stood up with a groan, clutching his abdomen as a slight pain shot up through his system. He straightened himself up and tried to look at the whole room to find anything that might give him an answer as to where he was. His eyes stopped on a very familiar nodachi, reclined on one of the walls.

He strode to his sword with much care, one hand still clutching his abdomen where he knew he had been fatally injured before and the other hanging rather limply at his side. When he was right in front of the sheathed blade he let out a small, very insignificant smile and brought his free hand to grab it with much kindness almost as if it were a living thing; that in a way he did consider them to be a living thing.

“Oh so you’re awake!”

He was startled out of his trance like state and quickly turned around at the fastest speed he could muster, he let go of his abdomen to grab the black hilt of his sword with a strong grip, in a defensive position ready to strike any second.

Eyes narrowed and tangerine colored brows furred together in a menacing scowl that would make the bravest man waver under his gaze. His eyes fell on the form of a man, taller than himself that also looked like he was double his own age. The man had long black hair tied together in a ponytail at the nape of his neck, the little amount of hair that was too short to be tied was spiky. The new intruder also happened to have piercing green eyes that in his current situation were as wide as saucers.

“Woah!”

The older man lifted his arms so that they were in sight, trying to show he meant no harm. He had a slightly panicked look on his face but still held a half smug smirk.