Bleach: Soul Battler

==== This article, Bleach: Soul Battler, is property of :Zanroga

prologue 

Amazed, the boy watched, as the disintegrating pieces of the monster fell to the ground. Shreds of the energy that had come out of the white cloaked man still swirled around the immediate vicinity, bathing it in a surreal glow. It had all happened so damn fast, him dying, the chain on his chest, the appearance of the monster, followed by the mysterious man that shot something out of the palm of his hand. It all seemed like a bad dream, but somehow, a voice in the back of his head continued to remind him that it was all real, no matter how unbelievable it seemed.

As he thought back to the encounter, he realized why he was so convinced that it was all real. The fear that had struck him when the monster appeared, it had been unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It had made a chill run straight through his bones, made his mind go blank, it had even numbed his entire body.

“Are you all right?”, The man in the white cloak asked.

“I think so, yes, except for the fact that I’m dead I believe, I’m quite all right.”

“Well, dying is kind of inevitable when faced with a hollow of this strength, especially when you’re alive”.

“Is that what that thing was called? A hollow? Never heard of it, what are they, some sort of evil spirits?”

“It doesn’t surprise me that you haven’t heard of them, they can’t be seen by normal humans, so naturally, there aren’t lot of people that know about them and those that do wisely keep their mouths shut. As for the other question, well, they’re somewhat like evil spirits, except that they were once normal souls, like you are, except they got caught up with something happening in the real world, preventing them from passing on to the Soul Society, the place where we guide all souls to, causing him to lose his hart and transform in what you just saw.”

“I see, I think I can understand that explanation”.

“Excellent, that means I won’t have to draw it out for you”, the man grinned.

“I have one question though, if that was a bad spirit, or hollow as you called it, and I’m a normal spirit, then what does that make you?”.

“Me? I’m a Shinigami, a Death God, we guide souls to Soul Society and purify hollows, sort of like the guardians of the souls.”

As the boy watched the last shreds of the strange energy dissipate, he saw the shinigami draw his sword again.

“What’s wrong? Is there another hollow nearby?” “No, it’s just that I need to guide you to Soul Society.”, the man smiled, “don’t worry, it won’t hurt. And when you get there, make sure you report to the Shinigami Academy right away. I’ve got a feeling you’ve got quite a bit of potential. Just tell them Yoshikune Shinji sent you, they’ll let you in.”

“I will”, the boy said, just as the shinigami let the hilt of his sword tap slightly on his forehead.

“Oh, before I forget, boy, what’s your name?” the man in the white cloak asked.

“It’s Takeshi, Sawada Takeshi”, the boy said as he was enveloped by a soothing blue light

Arriving in Soul Society
As Takeshi opened his eyes, he noted that he wasn't in the outskirts of Tokyo anymore.

Instead, he found himself in, what seemed to be, a medieval style city. He noticed people wearing traditional clothing and when he looked at himself, he found that he too, was wearing the same clothes as all the other people.

"So much for my good sense of fashion", he grumbled.

Slowly, he stood up, only to fall down right away, his stomach growling as a starved hyena.

Muttering, he got up again and tried to properly take in his surroundings.

He noticed row after row of houses, people walking in and out all the time. All wearing more or less the same style of clothing, though in a variety of colours.

Suddenly, he noticed a stall out of the corner of his eye.

"Great", he thought by himself, "I sure hope that guy has something to eat, because I'm starving here".

As he made his way towards the stall, he noticed that people that came too close started shaking and immediately shied away from him. One even let out a stifled cry when she came a little too close to him, followed by her collapsing to the ground. This of course, caused quite a bit of people to turn their heads towards him.

Immediately, some people ran towards the girl, helping her on her feet, and taking here into one of the houses.

Suddenly, he noticed an old man approaching him.

"So you're the cause of this disturbance", the old man said in an angry tone, "what do you think you're doing, radiating all that reiatsu all over the place?".

"Reiatsu, what's that? I'm sorry, but I only just arrived here about five minutes ago, so I don't know anything about this place or all these strange things. The only thing I was told, was to report to the Shinigami Academy. But right now, all I care about is to get some food, because I'm hungry as heck"

"That doesn't surprise me, with all that reiatsu you're radiating. Here, take this, it'll get rid of your hunger.", the man said while throwing some bread over to him. He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut short by several shinigami appearing on the rooftops of several nearby buildings.

"So you're the cause of that massive disturbance here", the largest of the group said.

"He doesn't look like much eh guys", one of the smaller shinigami spat.

Ignoring the comment, the larger one, obviously the leader of the group, jumped down towards Takeshi.

"What's your business here kid?", he asked.

"I was sent here by a man named Yoshikune Shinji, he told me to report to the Shinigami Academy as soon as I got here, but I have no idea where to start looking for it", he answered, trying his hardest not to be unnerved by the man's presence.

"I see", he frowned, "well, I can believe why Yoshikune Taichō would want to recommend you to the academy, but nevertheless, we'll have to check that. Please wait here for a while. Oi, Akira, contact headquarters right away, ask them about Yoshikune Taichō recommending some kid named, what's your name kid?"

"Takeshi, Sawada Takeshi".

"Ask them if he recommended some kid called Sawada Takeshi for the academy, and hurry it up a bit, we don't have all day.

"Yes sir", one of the shinigami shouted and immediately began chanting while painting some symbols on his arms.

"Net of black and white, 22 bridges, 66 peerless domains, footprints, distant thunder, crest of the mountains, volatile earth, enshroud by night, sea of clouds, blue formations, rise into the towering circle and charge across the heavens. Bakudō No. 77, Tenteikuura!", the patterns on his arms seemed to flow out of his fingertips, a glowing rectangle appearing in the air as he held his hands in front of him. Lighting seemed to shoot out of it, causing all of the other people to run into their homes, screaming at the sight of the shinigami performing the technique.

"Message relayed sir, now we just have to wait for the reply", the man said as the glowing form in the air faded.

"Knowing them, that could take a …", the man suddenly froze in mid-sentence.

"Bloody hell, sir, I've received a reply from headquarters, we are to escort the new trainee to the Academy immediately. There he'll be assigned a tutor from one of the senior year, she'll be waiting for us at the main gate."

Takeshi watched several of the people spy on them as the shinigami gathered around him.

"Here kid", the man said as he held out his hand, "hang on tight, we're going to hurry towards the academy right now."

As he grabbed the man's outstretched hand he felt several other shinigami grabbing his clothes tightly. He was about to ask why, but immediately felt himself being pulled forward at an insane speed. The surroundings turning into nothing more than a blur.

They landed right in front of another large complex. Noting that they were alone, the leader of the group cursed.

"Listen kid, we've still got stuff to do, so stay here and make sure you don't run off all right? Someone will come to pick you up in a short while, so don't do anything stupid."

Takeshi nodded, he wasn't so stupid as to do something like that. He'd barely finished his gesture and the shinigami had vanished again.

"How the heck do they do that?", he asked himself.

He looked up at the sky, a slight breeze flowing through his hair.

"I'm really dead aren't I", he sighed.

"Oh well, better make the best of this Shinigami stuff"

He could feel it would be something special, if he were to be able to learn all the things those guys had done. He had felt himself feeling lighter, stronger, faster, the moment he'd gotten here. He had been quite strong already, he was well known for his prowess in several martial arts in the real world, but here, it seemed as he could bring them out even better.

Since he didn't have anything better to do, he started to study his environment again.

The academy was constructed out of white stone, topped with an orange roof. Orange plates decorated the walls, and the whole building was draped in the style of an old temple or something like it. The whole building had a calming aura to it though.

At the same moment, he suddenly realized something. While it was cool to have powers like that Shinji dude, he also shuddered at the thought of having to learn it all by going to an academy. He'd never really liked going to school, though he had a feeling that this time, it wouldn't be quite like his school when he was still alive.

"Sorry I'm late", a voice suddenly came out of nowhere.

Takeshi started looking around to find the source of the voice, only to see a girl appear out of thin air right in front of his nose.

Instinctively he jumped back, only to have the girl drag him down in her fall.

Quickly, he adjusted his stance and put an arm around the girl's waist to keep her from falling face down on the stone floor.

"Drats, I really need to work on my shunpō some more, I just keep on losing my balance."

"Are you all right?", Takeshi asked, letting his arm slide from her waist when he was sure she had regained her balance.

"Are you the new guy?", she asked, ignoring his question, " heeee, you're pretty cute", she smiled as she shamelessly stared at him, taking every detail, his brown eyes, mid-length brown hair, angular face and perfect body, she didn't miss even a single detail, " and your reiatsu is pretty good for someone fresh from the living world.

"This is the Shinigami Academy as you already know, and it's where all wannabe shinigami come to learn techniques and how to control their power, so that one day, they might become worthy shinigami. This takes six years, though quite a lot of the students drop out before they finish their studies, or they just take longer. You're lucky that you have a recommendation from Yoshikune Taichō, it means that you can skip the entrance exam, which usually filters out around three quarters of the applicants. Well, judging by the reiatsu you're letting out, I'd say you shouldn't have all too much trouble in getting through the academy. But stay on your toes, most seniors don't really like the idea of someone skipping the entrance exam and most of the years here."

Anyway, we've lost enough time already, we better get going right away, I'm Akane by the way, Shimizu Akane", she smiled.

As she said this, she grabbed his hand and started dragging him inside.

Still overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of the girl, he could do nothing but be dragged along with her, into the Academy.

"First of all, we should get you the proper uniform, otherwise people might give you strange looks when they see you", Akane said as she dragged him along towards one of the smaller buildings to the side of the academy.

After having put on a white and blue version of the shihakushō that the shinigami had been wearing. Much to his surprise, they were quite comfortable and gave him plenty of room to move, something he'd need he thought.

He didn't have much time to admire his new clothes though, for he had barely put them on when the Akane poked her face into the room he was using to change.

" Are you ready? Ah, apparently so", she grinned as she once again took his hand and started to drag him across the entire campus.

As they were running, he looked at Akane and noted that she had earned her name, she was indeed blessed with beauty. He let his eyes glide slowly over every inch of her body, taking in even the slightest detail with utmost precision. Her slender body, her slightly muscled arms, the near perfect proportions of her entire body. Her chestnut brown waist-long hair tied up in a ponytail happily waved in the slight breeze that blew throughout the entire complex.

But most of all, he was captivated by her eyes. They were green, with a slightly brown circle around the pupil.

She noticed him staring at her, tilted her head questioningly.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my clothes?", she asked.

"No", he blushed and tried to avert his gaze, cursing at himself for being caught staring, "I was just wondering why you have a sword with you".

"Oh this? That's my Zanpakutō, all students here have one. But don't worry, you'll get your own pretty soon."

The thought of him owning a katana made him rejoice, it had been a dream ever since he was a kid, but his parents had never let him buy one.

"Looks like dying isn't so bad after all", he thought by himself, and he couldn't stop a grin wash over his face.

As they continued down one corridor after another, Akane explained all the different aspects of the life of shinigami. He was told that there were four main skills that a shinigami should possess. Kidō or The Way of the Demon, which was comparable to magical spells, consisting out of two separate categories, one for destruction and one for binding.

Followed by Hakuda, or hand to hand combat.

Hohō, which effectively meant agility. He suspected that it had something to do with rapid movement, probably the same thing that Akane had done when she had appeared out of thin air right in front of him.

And finally Zanjutsu, which was basically just sword fighting.

She also explained about the general layout of the Gotei 13 and it's command structure.

He understood that there were 13 divisions, each consisting of a large number of unseated shinigami, seated officers, a Fukutaichō and a Taichō, with at the top of all the divisions, the Sotaichō. There was also the Kidō Corps and the Onmitsukidō, plus some sort of research institute.

"After you graduate from this academy, you'll be assigned a division in which you'll serve as a shinigami, though you may request a transfer to another division if you like", she explained.

"Oh, and don't expect to be assigned as a seated officer right away, it usually takes a few years before you're assigned a post as an officer.", she quickly added.

"After all, we'll be going on assignments in the real world, facing real life or death battles. "And even with all the training most of us go through, there are shinigami that are killed or go missing practically every week".

"Then why do you do it?", Takeshi wondered.

"That's because we are the only ones that can do it, and what would you prefer? That all those souls are slaughtered just because we're too afraid to go out there and fight?", she said as she shot him a irritated look.

"You yourself were attacked by a hollow right? What would you think if you had been left to your fate?".

"Sorry, I was just wondering, but if you put it that way, I can understand your motivation."

"Great", she smiled happily, "let's continue with our tour then.

"Because I'll be your tutor during your time here, and you should consider yourself lucky for that I may add, you'll have to follow some classes, but in general, I'll teach you everything you'll have to know about being a shinigami during some supplementary classes. Of course, this'll mean that you won't have a lot of spare time, but the advantage is that, with a bit of hard work, you'll be able to graduate within one year. Something that is extremely rare here, but with your current level of reiatsu, I think you'll manage".

They continued to walk through the corridors of the academy, and he witnessed some other trainees practice kidō, others were sparring with wooden swords and some were just lounging about.

"Well, I guess this concludes the tour of the academy", Akane said when they arrived at a building which was obviously a dormitory. "Talk to the dorm head, and he'll assign you to a room where you can stay. After you're a bit settled in, come back here and we'll get started on our first lesson."

"But what about your lessons?", Takeshi asked, not wanting to mess up Akane's schedule.

"Don't worry about me", she replied, "I'm far ahead of the rest of my class. You're looking at the best student in the entire senior year here", she boasted.

"Right, the best student except for that one hohō technique right?", he teased.

"Oh shut up", she laughed.

"Right, now get going, we don't have all day."

He entered the dorm and started looking for the supervisor. It didn't take him long to find him though. He could here someone shouting about ditching classes, and sure enough, he found the supervisor nagging at some other students that were lounging about the hallways of the dormitory.

"Errrr, excuse me", he asked the supervisor, who whipped his head around at the sound of someone talking behind him.

"What is it? Shouldn't you be in class?", he growled.

"I'm new here, I only arrived today. I was told to talk to you so that I could be assigned a room.", Takeshi told him, "I was admitted to the academy based on a recommendation of Yoshikune Shinji."

"Ah, I see, well, I think we still have some spare rooms that I can offer you, follow me", he said, followed by him turning around and looking at the ditchers, "And you guys, get to your class, and I better not catch you ditching again or else."

They walked through the hallways of the dormitory, with the supervisor occasionally making some random students scatter in every direction, until they arrived at a door at the end of the corridor.

"There, I believe this one should do just nicely for you. You can consider this to be your home during the time you're here, here is the key."

After Takeshi was handed the key, he thanked the supervisor for showing him his quarters and rushed back down to meet Akane for his first lesson.

As he stormed out of the dormitory, he started looking around for the girl, until he spotted her sitting underneath some trees.

"Hey", she said when she spotted him running towards her, "you're back soon, sooner than I thought. Drats, and here I was thinking I could take a nap while you were inside. Oh well, I guess I should start with your first lesson then."

She signalled him to follow and started walking down a path between the trees. They continued along the path for a few minutes, until they arrived at a large clearing.

She sat down and told him to do the same.

As he sat down, she started explaining the source of the power of a shinigami to him. Shinigami used the power from inside their bodies, called reiatsu, to perform the different actions such as kidō and hohō.

Basically, he understood that it was a good thing to have as much of it as possible.

"I heard of some people talking to me about that, they were saying I radiated a strong reiatsu or something like that.", he told her.

"Let me guess, when you were walking in Rukongai, the place where you arrived here, the people there tended to avoid you right?"

"Yeah, one girl even collapsed when she came a bit too close".

"That's understandable. When you walk around, you release some reiatsu, this can affect weaker souls and the stronger your reiatsu, the greater the effect it has. That's why shinigami have to learn to subdue their power, otherwise some might even obliterate weaker souls just be standing near them. In order to do this, you must learn how to control it. You have to grasp your power and manipulate it, it's the basic of all shinigami techniques."

"First of all", she said as she took his hands, "you must find your power within yourself. Then you need to grab a hold of it and make it do your bidding. To do this, you must focus and meditate. Most shinigami only take a few days to do it, but it wouldn't surprise me if you would manage it in a few hours."

Following Akane's instructions, Takeshi closed his eyes and focused. Much to his surprise, he immediately found himself on a large piece of rock, floating amongst the clouds together with several other, similar, chunks.

In front of him, he could see some sort of shimmer in the air, as if the earth beneath it was heating it like a furnace.

As he tried to take everything in at the same time, he vaguely heard Akane's voice, something about his power being insubstantial in the beginning.

Immediately, he understood that the shimmer should be his own power and cautiously he began to approach it. As he came closer, he noticed that is had changed. It had grown considerably and he became somewhat more cautious in his approach.

As he came within a few feet of the shimmer however, it suddenly expanded, releasing a massive gust of wind that nearly blasted him off his feet. He vaguely heard Akane scream as he tried to regain his balance.

Akane watched him sink into deep meditation as she was explaining how to control reiatsu. A few minutes passed without anything happening, until she suddenly felt a chill creep up her spine. She focussed her attention on Takeshi and, much to her surprise, noticed a massive build-up of power coming from deep within the boy's body. She had just enough time to shield her face when suddenly a massive blast of reiatsu ripped through the clearing, slicing through branches like they were made of paper, and tearing huge gashes in the trunks of the trees. She let out a scream when one of the blasts slashed across her arm, creating a cut that ran from her wrist to her elbow. She scrambled to her feet and ran to the relative safety of the, now badly scarred, trees, all the while eyeing the boy that had unconsciously unleashed the massive wave or power. The feeling of it shook her to her core. As the best student of the senior year, she had encountered a few captains, and only they had had the same effect on her as this boy did.

Fighting to get back onto his feet, he noticed that the shimmer had undergone another change. It had become more substantial and now looked more like a faint cloud. This didn't mean that the wind had become weaker however, on the contrary, it seemed to gain in strength with every passing second. He thought of the scream he had heard and realised that something must have been going on with his body as well. Suddenly, he noticed that the wind had weakened a little bit. Without thinking, he threw himself at the strange cloud and grabbed at it. Much to his surprise, it was substantial and allowed him to get a good grip on it. This however, had the effect that the wind flared back up with more power than before. He was forced to hang on for dear life and it pulled violently at him, threatening to throw him clean off the rock he was on. He cursed at the cloud of power and tried to push it down to the ground. He tensed his muscles as he felt it budge, doubling his efforts to bring the damn thing down. As he pressed it down on the rock, he could feel the wind die down and suddenly noticed that the cloud was starting to flow more gently. As he let go, it came back up and started floating around lazily, apparently not realising the havoc it had unleashed only seconds before.

As he looked up, he felt himself being pulled away from the strange floating rock and moments later, he noticed himself sitting in the middle of the clearing. Of Akane there was no trace though and when he looked around he noticed the gashes in the trees and the broken branches that littered the clearing.

"Are you back Takeshi-kun?", he suddenly heard Akane's voice from behind one of the trees.

"Yeah, I'm back, and I think I have my power under control now. By the way, what happened here?"

"I think we severely underestimated your strength", she explained.

As she told him what had happened the moment he had sunk into meditation, his eyes widened in shock.

"You mean I did this?", he asked her with obvious disbelief in his voice, "but that's impossible".

"It's not impossible, it's just that your power is incredibly strong. Now I can see why Yoshikune Taichō felt the need to recommend you into the academy. You're amazing, your powers are even greater than my own."

"But I still need to learn how to control them right?", Takeshi told her.

"Exactly, but considering the time it took you to gain control over your own power, I think that shouldn't take too long. At this rate, graduating within the year is very much a possibility."

Suddenly he noticed the wound on her arm.

"Hey, are you all right?"

"Oh, you mean this?", she asked while pointing at the cut.

"That's nothing, I've had worse, besides, I can heal it myself.", as she said this she held the palm of her hand over the cut. Takeshi's eyes widened as her arm suddenly bathed in a fain green light.

"How the …", he brought out, but he couldn't finish his sentence because after only a few second, Akane removed her hand and there wasn't a trace of the cut left.

She grinned as she saw his face.

"It's an application of Kido, it allows you to heal wounds on yourself and others. Pretty handy in times like this. Now, do you want to continue with your lessons or should we call it a day?"

He snapped out of his amazement, realizing that he had been staring at Akane's arm.

"I would like to continue, if you don't mind", he told her. He was getting more interested in being a shinigami by the minute.

"Right, then we should try for you to materialize your zanpakutō. But considering the last time you went into meditation", she looked around at the marks that the reiatsu had left in the trees, " I think we ought to move to a more, secure location before you cause an even bigger disturbance. Come on, follow me".

As they snuck out of between the trees, they saw several trainees accompanied by one of the teachers run towards the clearing.

"They're going to be wondering about what caused the devastation", Akane grinned.

"Perhaps they're going to classify it as a natural disaster", Takeshi replied, a grin appearing on his face as well.

"Well, if they'd come to that conclusion, it'd be correct, in a way", Akane smiled at him.

This response momentarily stopped his thought process. What kind of power did he possess if the best student of the senior year thought he was comparable to a natural disaster. He didn't have much time to wonder about it though, for soon enough, she grabbed his hand again and started pulling him towards their next destination.

As they ran across half the academy again, he noticed a distinct change in the environment. The usual, beautifully decorated hallways and classrooms giving way to more sterile and colder looking corridors and training rooms. He thought that this was probably what she had meant with a more secure location and he couldn't blame her. Should his next meditation cause something similar, or even something worse, he could've levelled every single tree in the vicinity, something he had never imagined possible when he was still alive. All of this still felt somewhat unreal. The encounter with the monster and the white cloaked man, his admittance to the academy, his meeting with Akane. He felt light as a feather and strong enough to snap a tree in half and ever since he had come out of the meditation, he could feel the power inside himself, bending itself to his will. He was curious what the materialization of his zanpakutō would be like. It was something he could barely even imagine.

They stopped in front of a large metal door, it's sleek surface glimmering in the last spots of sunlight that fell through one of the windows, bathing the entire hallway in an eerie light.

"Here we are, the special training room", Akane explained as she slid open the metal door.

On the contrary to what he expected, it slid open quite easily, Akane apparently didn't have to use any strength at all, or at least it seemed that way, for she used only one hand to push it aside as if she were pushing a branch of a bush out of the way.

As they entered the room, he noticed that the insides of the room were covered in the same metal as the door, with a single window in the roof.

He sat down in the middle of the room, with Akane staying well away from his location, obviously to avoid getting hurt like the last time.

"So I basically do the same right?", he asked her nervously.

"Well, I can't tell you what will happen once you've entered your mental realm, it's different for each person. But you can expect it to be harder than the last time because this time, your own power will test you to see if you are worthy to wield a zanpakutō", she explained.

"But don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine".

Hearing her say this, he calmed down a bit and closed his eyes.

After a few seconds staying focused on the pulse he felt inside of him. He felt something pulling at his conscious again. He let it drag him along and quickly he found himself in his mental world again. What he saw there shook him to his very core, he could even feel the rock he was standing on shudder as shock coursed through him.