The Rain before the Sunshine Volume 1 (Bleach FanFiction)

When it all begins.

               A breeze brushed passed Carrin's cheek, her black kimono gently swaying around her wrists and ankles where her sandals were tied. She hated the sandals to begin with, the socks just was the tip of the iceberg, so she refused to wear them, thinking the sandals are more than enough. It was strange, the clothing was almost literally nothing to anyone around, only few seemed to have a sense of fashion and try and touch up their dull outfits by adding a scarf or something. As uncomfortable as the straw sandals looked, they actually were not bad, they were extremely light and were not bothersome during the day or walking in, unless she would tie them to tight then they are the worst things in the world.

              Everyone else did not seem to care, most brushed off her complaining, saying it was because she was too new and had not learned what things really matter and what did not. Dead people should not worry about material things like clothes and fashion, quotes by this old man who helped Carrin learn the language of Japanese so she could function in soul society.

             The old man also complimented her when she learned the language quickly and not even a year of being dead and being in soul society she pushed and because a soul reaper. Said he never heard of such a 'young soul' becoming a soul reaper so quickly.

               Alive in the world of the living, as all the people around society called it, Carrin was visiting japan for vacation. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She found herself in between a gun and its target and took a single shot to the head. She wandered as a soul for a few days, then a soul reaper spotted her and passed her on when she seemed unable to. She did not want to leave, but the soul reaper convinced her she was safer in soul society than in the world of the living with hollows roaming about. His orange hair was a distinct feature she was not sure she would ever forget. At first she thought he was like her and was a foreigner, but he sure as hell did not understand her English and they had to communicate by a bunch of strange gestures and very select Japanese words that she knew.

            It sucked at first.

            She died in a country not her own and ended up in what seemed like a Japanese afterlife, simply because she died in japan. It was strange, and she had yet to find someone who understood why it was like that, she did not understand all of the soul society things yet, as far as all that went, she knew their was far more than she might have imagined, of course she was not going to learn of all of it naturally, no matter how much time she had. She took what was given to her and grew quickly.

             She was determined to learn what all this was. She learned an entire language by a sincere elderly Japanese man who hardly knew English himself. She immediately moved up the ladder and joined a place that was basically a soul society school. Before anyone could bat an eyelash, she moved on from the 'Rukon District', where all the souls are sent to live until they decide to be reborn, to 'Seireitei', the center of soul society where the soul reapers and noble families stay.

              The only way she made it, as young and ignorant as she was, she was told she had a great amount of energy that could not be passed up and showed great potential by learning how to use her shikai less than a day after getting her zanpakuto. She took everything they threw at her in stride, she learned at an extraordinary pace. She caught the attention of some higher up 'noble families' and they offered her their name, with benefits and whatnot, but she turned them all down, determined to grow on her own. She proved she did not need a name to get where she was as fast as she had. She did not know a lot of things yet, but she did know a name with a reputation, like the Kuchiki family among many others, came with a lot of burdens and certain expectations. She felt like doing something like agreeing to join them, she would have to become someone else to live up to their name.