Life after Death

Chapter 21 - Earthland

Hey everyone! I hope you're as ready to tackle 2018 head-on as I am, because you don't got no choice now!

I apologize for any grammar errors that I have made! Read and Review!
Disclaimer: I don't own either, of course. Obviously. I mean, you can't be surprised at this point, can you?

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"Are you ready to go?" Aizen asked, looking at Lucy almost kindly.

She nodded curtly. "Yes." She replied confidently. In reality, she wasn't actually sure she was. But she wasn't sure she ever would be either, so she was just going to do it.

He nodded as well. "Good. Now then, have you tried opening a Garganta before?" He asked her, to which she could only shake her head. She hadn't ever needed to, so no, she hadn't. "You just have to visualize the place you want to go to in your mind and use your reiatsu to call out to it. The portal will appear before you know it." He told her.

Though a little unsure, she nodded. She could do this. She had to. It was now or never if she wanted to see everyone again. There was no going back now.

"Of course. I suggest you do not visualize somewhere filled with people. Usually, they do not work well with such a grand entrance." He said, somewhat amusedly as he seemed to remember a time where that had happened.

She nodded again. Yeah. Maybe showing up out of a grand portal like that in the middle of the guild hall wasn't such a great idea. Fairy Tail was all for grand entrances, but that still might be a little too much.

She already knew where to go, though.

"All right. I'm going to try." She told him and the others in the room firmly. And she was going to succeed.

"It's probably easier if you close your eyes, Kitten." Grimmjow told her from her right. He was keeping a little closer than usual, but that was probably not surprising.

She did as he suggested and closed her eyes, focusing on the memory of the place she had gotten so many wonderful memories in. She could easily remember it and all the many, many hours she'd spent there with the people she loved. And even the times without.

As she'd been told, she used her reiatsu and imagined it calling out to it. She creased her brow as she focused on truly summoning the path to that place. But nothing was happening, no matter how much she seemed to try.

"Don't think of it as summoning one of your Spirits. Earthland won't just come to you if you ask it nicely, Kitten. You have to create the damn path yourself." Grimmjow told her.

She nodded, understanding what he was trying to tell her and what she was doing wrong. She had to open the gate herself, there wasn't anyone here to help her in doing it.

She quickly pulled her reiatsu back and then tried again. Instead of passively waiting for a reaction, she instead reached out to the place she remembered so clearly. She imagined a strand of her reiatsu stretching out, ascending from this world and slipping into the other, paving a path between them.

When she suddenly felt a tug at her reiatsu and a poke at her shoulder, she opened her eyes to see the big portal opened in front of her like a tear in the universe.

She only barely managed not to gape at the sight before her. "I did it..." She muttered. The feeling wasn't strong, but she could feel her world through the Garganta.

That, you did. Quite impressive for a first time, I have to say." Aizen said. "Now then, I will come and pick you up when your time is up." He told her.