As it was in my first fic, this is my own little private corner of the Bleach 'verse. I won't affecting the main storyline, it will be affecting me
We now rejoin our illustrious hero, who had met an untimely end at the claws of a hollow and passed beyond the mortal coil. He has traveled the length and breadth of the other side to arrive at Seireitei, that hallowed ground where the shinigami dwell, ready to take his place among the guardians of life and death.
But first, I have to fill out these forms in triplicate, and go through an extensive examination period involving everything from personal interviews to tests of my ability.
It's like applying to a fancy private school…but with dead people.
The very first day I work up in Seireitei, I'd seen some of fourth squad's medics hovering over me, taking care of my wounds. I'd heard Iba-san grunting congratulations on the kill I'd made from the doorway. And I was so sore I'd told them all to just go away, turn the lights out and let me get some real sleep for once since this whole mess had started.
I'd pulled the blankets over my head, and felt the texture of the cloth over me. It wasn't like the sheets on my bed. I'd sat up, and there wasn't anyone in the room. And I had been surprised by how bright it was, until I saw that it was sunlight, streaming in through wood plats set in a very old-fashioned window, not coming through modern plastic blinds or down from an electric bulb.
It took a good minute for the truth of the situation to really sink in. I had…died…and I was on the other side, heaven, nirvana, whatever people care to call it. I was trying to become a shinigami, a guard and guide for lost souls.
I sat up and reached for a bundle of cloth on the nightstand. I saw rough, hand-woven cloth, felt it on my skin when I put it on. But it wasn't the 'cloth' I was used to. I pressed my senses into it, and saw the faint energy within, particles of spiritual energy woven into the semblance of something familiar. If I tried hard enough, I could touch everything around me…the walls, the floors, the earth and stone deep beneath my feet. Further outwards, reiatsu was thick in the air, currents and eddies forming as powerful shinigami moved and tapped their power around me. But I'd felt all of that before, just not on this scale, and I was really expecting something more…fantastic, you know? Things didn't feel much different then while I was alive.
Alive.
I had…died.
I'd stood there, quietly, for some time as my brain tried to process that thought until the tramp of feet outside my door pulled me back to reality. I finished dressing and headed out with a small rush, and left that thought behind and for another day.
A few minutes later, I walked out into the sunlight, a courtyard full of fresh recruits milling around; talking and laughing like any students would when the teacher was late. I was wearing one of the academy's snazzy student uniforms, and one other thing.
A zanpakutou. Not a fake, but a real one that manifested a short while after my arrival. To say that it was a part of me was an understatement. More like it was most of me, all my power flowing in and out of it in tune with my breath and my heartbeat, an essential part in tune with every other system in my body. Of all those present, I was the only one there with a sword at my hip.
The instructors at the academy told me I would learn to meditate, to clear my mind and find tranquility enough to communicate directly and clearly to my zanpakutou, to learn from it and grow stronger. Mainly, I wanted to know why it refused to shut up, a tirade of incomprehensible sounds and half-formed images rattling the back of my skull.
The students started to stare when I finally pulled the bastard from my belt and started whacking him against the nearest rock.
Purest manifestation of my soul's essence my ass.
An hour's worth of speeches, another half-hour of being juggled by the faculty to decide where I should be placed because of the unique circumstances, and another dozen forms to be filled out later, I stood outside my first class. I wanted to go in, but I waited a moment, just watching the other students filing past. I looked away, and tried to think about what was behind me, remember my old life in another world.
But only for a moment, before stepping into the room and taking my place among the shinigami.