Twilight of the Gods (Black Dawn)

Twilight of the Gods is the first arc in the Bleach: The Black Dawn series.

I Am Alive
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A slow, and yet steady heartbeat were the only signs of life, in this black void. Stretching on and on, ceasing to come to a reasonable halt, nothing in sight, nothing in the range of smelling, tasting, feeling except for this darkness, and the lonely heartbeat that went with it.

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"Raiken, please...don't do this..."

A voice, a feminine voice speaking in a soft, pleading tone, shattered the consistant heartbeat.

pump-pump....

"You know he can't stay here..."

Another voice entered the fray, speaking in a more depressed, regrettful tone.

"Talk to them! Convince them otherwise! He's harmless, just a child!"

"It's not that simple, Masane...."

The voices began to fade away, their argument turning into unintelligible words and whispers.

"Why?! Why can't you just behave?! Why do you always do things like this to me!?"

Another feminine voice, somewhat younger sounding than the first and more harsh in tone, spoke to someone, a kid, presumidibly from the words she spoke.

"I do nothing but provide for you, and all you can ever do is just make my life a living hell!"

And then, her voice began to drift away as well, fading into the nothingness of the void.

"I promised...your father...promised him I'd....give you...all I coul-gruk!!....could....."

The next voice was that of a fairly youthful sounding man, at least in his late twenties, coughing and sounding as if his words were hindered by a critical wound.

"Take this gift...use it well..."

FWOOOOOM!!!!!!!

As the voice trailed away, the heart beat seemed to stop at last, and as the sound of the fading explosion began to leave...

"aaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!"

The darkness shattered entirely, vision now resembling a fairly dim-lit room, with stone walls and several scientific looking devices as the man screamed with a blood curdling, painful sounding yell. His eyes shooting open fully, his black, gothic style hair flailing around briefly as he did so. His entire upper torso was completely bare, revealing a fairly muscular tone, riddled with various stitched scars and with a single hollow hole in the very center of his chest. From the waist down, he wore what appeared to be a black pair of pants that covered all but his ankles and feet.

He was laying on what appeared to be an experimental table, with straps on his ankles, his knees, his waist, gut, and chest area, facing straight upwards. Next to him was a blank computer moniter, and on the wall that was next to said moniter were several large tubes full of violet liquid, each containing a humanoid appearing figure that all wore solid white haoris.

Breathing heavily, his eyes lowered slightly, but his eyebrows remained as high as they could be. He looked around, desperately searching for some form of life, other than himself and the lifeless appearing bodies in the tubes next to him. Seeing that his movement was hindered by tight constrictions around his form, he gritted his teeth, raising his head up to glare at the straps with burning hatred.

S-S-S-S-Snap!!!!!

Folding his hands into fists, his muscles began to flex and within a mere second, the straps all snapped in two and fell off of the sides of the table.

As soon as this happened, he was up, on his feet with a rather weary stance. It had felt like years since he had walked or even moved for that matter, and yet, he also felt as if he had just been born. There was nothing hardly in his mind but questions, and no memories. Who am I? Where am I? Why was I here in the first place? These thoughts ran through his mind like a maze with no end. He was like a child who just woke up after a year long slumber. Nothing seemed to make sense to him.

"Come....."

Suddenley, a feminine whisper, gentle and smooth like the flow of silk and honey came to his ears, from the far end of the hallway. His eyes lowered and narrowed, and his left eye, mostly concealed by the style of his hair, shined with a red light.

''"Scanning..." ''an emotionless, cybernetic male voice said in the man's mind. Within his vision through the right eye, the entire hallway was red in shade. Several numbers and words of arcane, and yet...oddly familiar appearance popped up on his vision as well. A slightly white circle appeared at the dark end of the hallway, attached to a white line that in turn, led up to a small square of white color in the upper left corner of his vision. In the square appeared to be lines comparible to that of a heart beat moniter.

"Come to me...Rushifa..."

''"Target identified." ''the male voice spoke. As the feminine whisper came to his hearing once again, the heartbeat like line within the square fluxuated briefly. Then, he suddenley found his vision zooming down the other end of the hallway. Stopping just before it left into complete darkness, the blackness of the hallway cleared and brightened, revealing another tube like device with the same liquid from the other three earlier. Within this tube, in what appeared to be the center of the room, was a sword. A daito in appearance, with a star shaped tsuba, a gold handle covered in wrapping, and a black and blue sheathe was what made up it's appearance, with the blade pointing downwards as the weapon remained motionless in the liquid. Within his vision, the weapon was highlighted with a blue glow.

''"Weapon scanning complete. Diagnostic finished." ''The robotic voice continued in the stoic, toneless manner as befroe. "Ragnarok: Artificially created Zanpakuto with the capablities of learning knowledge from other Zanpakuto techniques. Source of this platform's power. Recommend taking Ragnarok immediately."

At this point, the man hardly knew what was happening, but he had little choice. Taking a single step forward, he inched towards the Zanpakuto's location with uncertainty, and fear.

He slowly kept his pace, the time between each step feeling like an hour. For him, this was the first feeling of uncertainty that he had ever encountered. Was this the source of the whispers? If it was, what was it wanting with him? Why did it call him Rushifa? Was this his name? More importantly, how could a sword talk?

He finally appeared before the tube, looking up at the sword with a rather curious, and still slightly nervous expression. His eye wasn't glowing anymore, and the red vision that he had before was gone, replaced instead with just...normal vision.

''"Speak to me, Rushifa." ''the feminine voice spoke in the same smooth tone, originating supposidly from the sword. "I need to hear your voice, feel your words, and be part of you, as we were meant to be...."

Swallowing before he spoke, his tone was rather low and a bit raspy. "What...are you...Ragnarok?" he finished as his voice cleared up more.

''"Simply what I am, Rushifa..." ''the weapon continued in the same tone. "I, am Ragnarok. I am your power, I am your shield, your sword in the midst of battle. I am your mother in the dark world, your father on the road of life. I am your teacher, your mentor, but at that same time, I am your student, eager to learn more about you and what you have to teach me. I am your lover, holding you closely in times of peril or saddness, comforting you when you have no one else to turn to. I am Ragnarok, the source of your power, Rushifa."

"Dang." he replied with a couple of comical blinks, widening his eyes a little more. "That's ah...that's a bit of a package there. I'm not sure if I can handle it..."

''"Wha-hey!" ''the sword said back in a rather comically annoyed tone. "That was a very emotional speech on my part! You're supposed to be in wonder and awe at what I am!"

"I am." he said back with a lightly aprehensive, comically nervous tone. "It's just ah...look i'm not really sure what the hell is happening. I don't know who I am, what's going on...I'm generally confused right now..."

''"Then take me out of this container." ''the now confirmed voice of Ragnarok spoke smoothly once more. "And I will show you what you need to know..."

"Alright then..." he said as he began to look around at the container and the various buttons and consoles around it. "Let's see what we can do here...."

However, it only took him a few seconds to realize how futile his attempts at deciphering the device were. "Ah...well, this isn't helping. I guess I could..."

He reared his right fist back.

''"Wait-don't!!!!" ''Ragnarok yelled comically, but in vain...

CRAC-BROOoooosh......

The glass shattered entirely, and the weapon fell onto it's flat side, before sliding down the console and onto the surface in front of Rushifa. "That's...something I'm going to have to work on. Brute force isn't going to solve all of your problems Rushifa..."

"No," he grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "but it solved this one at least."

''"...true." ''she replied with a sigh, before her form began to float upwards in front of him. "Now, Rushifa, take me, and let me show you a world beyond comprehension..."

Without speaking, and holding out his hands with initial hesitation, he took hold of the weapon's form by it's sheathe and it's handle. Upon doing so, a bright blue blure obscured all of his vision, causing him to briefly grunt as he closed his eyes.

When the light faded and his eyes slowly opened, his mouth opened somewhat from shock at what he saw.

He was in a whole other world, standing in what appeared to be blue tinted snow, despite being barefoot, he didn't feel cold. In fact, he felt rather warm and comfortable. As he looked around, the sky appeared to be that of outer space, with a massive planet in the distance, and stars dotting the skies all around.

"Where....where am I?" he asked aloud to no one in particular, not even noticeing the fact that his sword was no longer in his hands.

"You are where you need to be, when you need guidance."

The voice of Ragnarok came from behind him, prompting Rushifa to whirl around to face her. What he saw was a beautiful, pale skinned woman with four black angel wings on both sides of her back. She wore an organic appearing suit, of which partially revealed the sides of her body. Her hair was long and black, with orange eyes and a blue dot at the top center of her head.

"Welcome to your inner world, Rushifa Sureiya."

"So...Rushifa is my real name, huh?" the man replied as he slowly looked around his new surroundings, clearly in awe at all of the things that he could see. "What do you mean by an "Inner World"?"

"Your Inner World is the realm that I created, where you and I can communicate more clearly and face to face." Ragnarok spoke in a calm voice, gently floating down to the light blue snow beneath her. "It's much simpler than me just talking to you in my sealed form."

"Alright, so, yeah...' Rushifa replied, rubbing the back of his head briefly. "You said you were going to clarify some things for me. I hope you will, cause' I got alot of things to ask..."

"Ask away." she replied with a slight smile. "Though, I likely won't be able to answer all of them. I'll go ahead and tell you right now, the answers to some of your obvious questions. Firstly, no, I don't know your past or your history, relatives, anything like that." she began, holding up a finger in emphasis. "Secondly, I know what exactly you are. You are a Soul Reaper, a very special Soul Reaper that has been gifted with several traits that no other Soul Reaper can have."

"What is a Soul Reaper?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"A Soul Reaper is a departed being, once a human or a living creature, that has died and moved on into the spiritual plane of existance known as Soul Society." she went on, holding out her arms to her lower sides as she explained. "Here, many of those souls train with Soul Reapers and acquire powers that allow them to perform many wonders. Namely, going to the world of the living and finding wondering souls, and bringing them to Soul Society."

"Is that where I'm at? In Soul Society?" he continued as he crossed his arms. If what he had woken up in Soul Society, then he honestly would have preferred this inner world of his! "Not where we are now, like, when I woke up."

"No, you're not in Soul Society." Ragnarok stated as she too looked around. "But...i'm not sure where you're at currently, Rushifa. This building that you're in feels so empty and lifeless. You'll have to go outside of it before I can decide."

"Alrighty~" he said, unfolding his arms and looking around some. "...wwwhat do I do? Do I just...like, I dunno, say some magic word or something?"

Ragnarok stared at him with a blank glare, before raising up her right hand and snapping her fingers.

Pop!

With a popping noise, Rusihfa's vision became a white light once more and within a few seconds, he was back in the dark, lifeless building from before, still holding the sword in his hands as he looked around briefly, sighing.

''"Now, let's see if we can't find our way out of this place." ''Ragnarok said plainly.

"Right..." he said lowly as he looked around the room. If anything, wherever he was, he would rather have some form of clothing on rather than just plain old pants. "...say, you wouldn't happen to know where I can find something else to wear, would you?" he asked his Zanpakutou.

"Well," she replied. "Try looking over on that shelf behind you, I think I saw some sort of robes on it."

-

"Yeah, I think this is just what I'd want." Rushifa said in a satisfied tone, now wearing a rather old and yet comfortable looking grey Shikahushou over his form with a light blue strap around his waist. Underneath this robe were several wrappings that concealed any part of his previously revealed skin, as well as a pair of sandals and socks. There was just one piece left that he hadn't donned just yet...

A white mask, displayed on the wall to his left, of which had a black wig attached to it's top.

''"That could come in handy." ''Ragnarok stated with a pique of curiousity at seeing the mask. There was something about it...a peculiar aura around it's form that made it feel as if...it were made for Rushifa himself.

"Don't see why not." Rushifa reached up and put the mask on, it's black wig perfectly covering his hair and the mask completely hiding all of his face. "Besides, I think having a mask on will...I dunno, make me look awesome?"

"Sure, that's the important thing."

to be continued...