Bleach: Dark Doubles

Chapter 1: Darkness, Insanity, and Escape

The sirens won't stop blaring throughout the building. I grip my head, feeling blood run down my face and through my fingers. I'm losing control. Losing sanity. What's going on? Why am I here? Who am I?

The air is both cold and refreshing. But it is also harsh; I don't feel comfortable in it. I'm naked. A shiver runs through my cold body, even as my head burns with pain from the hole in my forehead. The ground shakes beneath me as some explosion erupts somewhere in the building, jostling my cell. My legs are still adjusting to the hard, lifeless stone beneath me. The lights won't stop flashing, the sirens won't stop ringing. I'm so confused. What's happening?

The last thing--or maybe it's the first thing--I remember is pain running through my body. I was lying on an icy, metal table, and I noticed someone next to me. He was holding a long syringe, empty of whatever fluid it had previously held. I couldn't see him; he was drenched in shadow. But he spoke to me, his voice rich and yet eerie, saying, "You are the final experiment, the most prized of my creations. Come, and I will teach you how to serve me." And he put me in this cell.

That was only five minutes ago.

I was born five minutes ago.

I remember nothing before that; I don't know if I ever existed before waking up on that metal table.

But then it happens for the third time: a flash of remembrance courses through my mind. "Ichigo Kurosaki"

I see a Soul Reaper with orange hair and a huge sword. I don't know how I know he's a Soul Reaper, or why I even know he exists. But this keeps on happening. "Who is he?" I wonder, lost and confused. Another image flashes in my mind. The Soul Reaper stands around a group of friends; two girls and three boys. "Ichigo Kurosaki"

And then after that, all that comes to mind is my own appearance. I raise my eyes, peering into the glass wall surrounding me, and I see my reflection.

Though mine is black, I have the same spiky hair. The same angry eyes. The same body. The same everything. I look exactly like him. "Ichigo Kurosaki"

But...why?!

The ground shakes beneath me again, and this time I am thrown from my feet. I land on the stiff stone, bruising my knees, and then another explosion occurs. The glass walls of my cell burst and shatter, thousands of shards clashing against the floor and rebounding off each other as they plummet. I raise my head, and through the demolished wall of my room emerges a dark figure. His long black hair flows behind him, held back from his face by white headpieces. He wears a long black robe, topped with a shorter white one. Thousands of small, black objects hover in the hair around him.

An image flashes in my mind again. It is of the same person. Only he is not so dark. He is surrounded by light and pink petals, which are sharp as daggers. This person is surrounded by a black cloud of tiny knives. "Who are you?" I shout.

He doesn't answer.

Then a name comes into my mind. I don't know where it comes from. I don't know where any of this knowledge comes from! "Byakuya Kuchiki"

Then he speaks. "I am...your death."

His army of petals sail towards me. And a pang of understanding rises within me.

"Ichigo Kurosaki"

I cry out. I don't know how it happens. My battle drive is activated. I don't know how I know, but I do. The knowledge has been with me since I was born. Now I know how to make sense of this knowledge. The knives fly towards me.

"Getsuga...Tensho!" I spread my arms out, like a dragon about to take flight, and a huge blast of power, whipping and dancing, black and wrathful, discharges from me towards the other Byakuya. He gasps.

The explosion destroys half the building.

For a few moments, there's only dust, and confusion. Everything happened so quickly. And for the first time in what feels like forever, there is silence. I don't know if anyone died. I don't know if anyone survived. But I was able to escape.

I alight on the roof of the building, the building where I was born, deep within this dark world. I look upon what my power has wrought. I don't understand. I don't understand who I am. I don't understand this power. Who am I? Why was I created? I clench my fists, my own confusion making me frustrated and full of rage. "Dammit!" I think.

I raise my head to the sky. "Who am I?" I say aloud.

"Ichigo Kurosaki"

Then I suddenly know where to go. Another image flashes in my mind. This time, it's of a town. And I don't know how, but I know it's name: Karakura Town.