| This article, Bleach: Spirits Are Forever With You (English)/Chapter 1 is considered to be canon material as it contains only information related to the original Bleach series and does not contain fanon or fan fiction elements. |
- Present day, Karakura Town—
"Hey, I'm glowing right now, right?" The teen seemed to be muttering to himself. He scratched his newly shaved scalp and stared up at the night sky. He and his classmate had just left a Christmas party that had been organized by another friend and were headed home. The high school student, Keigo Asano, had lost a game at the party and had been forced to shave his entire head, except for one small strip that ran down the center. He looked over at his classmate, Mizuiro Kojima, and grinned widely to keep himself from crying.
"Are you trying to say that a mohawk is NOT cool!? It makes a man look good! Of course it's cool! In fact, in that famous movie, Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro has this hairstyle! ...Although I actually haven't seen that movie—But we're talking about Robert De Niro! D-E-NI-RO. Of course it's cool to have the same style as that guy!"
Compared to Keigo's overly-energetic attempts to hide the agony in his voice, the boy next to him didn't even glance at the drastic change. "Don't worry. It takes physical strength to laugh at others, and I don't really want to spend more effort than I need to."
"You're laughing now, aren't you. Have you no shame?!"
Mizuiro ignored him and continued. "Oh, yes, I'm laughing, but not at Robert De Niro. While Robert De Niro and Bechkham might have had mohawks, that style only looks cool on someone who was cool to begin with. You need to know what you can and can't pull off, Keigo."
"Kicking me when I'm already down!? I just didn't expect you to actually bring a razor to the party!" Keigo was in clear distress, but Mizuiro's tone remained nonplussed.
"Anyway, technically it was Inoue who told you about Robert De Niro and Taxi Driver to comfort you, right? Her knowledge really is surprising sometimes. The movie's name and star are one thing, but I wonder if she knows the other actors who were in that movie. Let's see..."
Seeing the coldness of his close friend next to him, Keigo grabbed Mizuiro by the shoulders and shook him. "Forget about the trivia. I'm the one who had to shave his head! I know parties need to have fun games, and that can include games with funny punishments but... this time you went too far, Mizuiro! I know it was you who added, 'shave your head like a punk' to the list of punishments, wasn't it!"
"Don't blame me for the way you ended up, sir. I just suggested it, and everyone told you not to go through with it. But then you went ahead and yelled, 'An enlightened man will be welcomed by girls!', and grabbed the razor without hesitation."
"Wait, wait a minute Please don't use honorifics, Kojima-kun. If someone sees me and you acting like strangers, they'll think I'm a punk-headed mugger and call the cops!" A nervous sweat broke out on Keigo's shaved scalp, and he glanced around in panic.
He saw a young woman looking sideways at him. "Ahhh! No, no! You don't understand, miss. This is Robert De Niro's hairstyle!" Keigo smiled in panic as he tried to spit out incomprehensible excuses. However, his smile suddenly froze. Upon closer examination, he realized that the woman had a more shocking appearance than his own shaved head. She had shoulder-length black hair and beautiful facial features, and seemed to wear a gloomy expression.
The right half of her face was covered by a gleaming white skull mask.
"Huh?"
Now, the cold sweat was dripping down Keigo's back. He had seen masks like that before... wasn't it similar to the ones worn by the monsters that Afro-san chased around all the time? According to Keigo's friends, Chad and Inoue, the things that wore masks were some kind of evil spirit (although he couldn't remember the official name that they had told him). Keigo didn't know when it had started, but somehow, he possessed the ability to sense spirits. This had led to trouble several times in the past. Now, he sensed a similar aura from those times coming from this woman.
"Keigo, this person..."
Hearing Mizuiro's voice, he nodded, returning to his senses.
"Yeah, I know."
"She's pretty, but don't just go running up to her carelessly, okay?"
"Hey, who do you think I am? I'm the coolest, calmest guy around!" Although if her boobs were bigger, I might not be able to help myself from rushing up to her. He might have thought that, but he'd be killed if he said it aloud. Keigo once again turned his gaze to the woman, but with a sudden, seemingly embarrassed expression, she melted away, instantly disappearing into thin air.
"Woo-oh-oh-oh-oh! She just vanished! Did you see that Mizuiro?! She disappeared, didn't she!?"
Mizuiro's expression didn't change. "Yeah. I guess she wasn't human."
Keigo couldn't hide his expression of disbelief. His eyes widened. "Wait, you're not even a little surprised? Am I the only one going crazy here? Is it strange for me to have this reaction? You saw her right? Even if I'm cursed because of it, if that lady snuck into my room at night... I'd have no regrets. Is that weird?"
"Please calm down, cool, handsome guy. Do you normally think this way after seeing a spirit?"
Even though they had just witnessed an extraordinary phenomenon in front of them, the two high school students carried on their conversation as if this were a normal part of their day-to-day lives. However, this time the phenomena truly was abnormal, as it proved to be different than other instances in the past...
"Hey, did you just see that woman disappear?" A man's voice asked.
"I did! Holy crap!" Some girl answered.
Hearing the shouting, Keigo and Mizuiro looked back and saw a man and a woman, who seemed to be college students, staring over in their direction. It seemed they had also seen the appearance and disappearance of the skull-faced spirit woman.
"Huh?"
Keigo felt strange about the situation. Although he didn't want to admit it, he had started to take pride in his recent ability to sense supernatural phenomena. Do those two have the same sensory abilities as me? Thinking this and looking around, he felt grim.
Although it was already dark in the downtown streets of Karakura Town that ran into Naruki City, there was still a lot of foot traffic: Office workers who had to put in overtime, college students out on the town for karaoke, and others passing by. All now stared at the place where the female spirit had disappeared, whispering to each other. Some of them even out their phones and pointed the lenses at the spot. The entire scene was very strange. And, adding to the strangeness, Keigo realized the uneasy feeling in his chest was coming from...
A man wearing a black robed costume rushed into the center of attention and looked around. He raised his voice and yelled: "Woooooo! I can feel suspicious residual Reiatsu here, but I don't see anything! Could it be that that guy felt the spiritual pressure of none other but I, Zennosuke Kurumadani, and ran away in fear?"
"Hey, it's Afro-dude!"
"You! Aren't you the one that stole my Zanpakutō before? What kind of hairstyle is that anyway? Also, you're still calling me "Afro-dude" even after I just announced my name?! Would it be too much for you to use my actual name? It's like you don't intend to remember it at all! How rude!"
According to Keigo's friend Ichigo, this person's name was Zennosuke Kurumadani, more commonly known as "Afro-dude" or "Af-san." He was a "God of Death", one of the people who specialized in dealing with the monsters that Keigo recognized as evil spirits. However, despite the sudden appearance of this strange-looking man, the people around him continued to talk about the woman who had just disappeared. Judging from that and the fact that the explosive God of Death had yelled passionately without apparently reaching anyone else's ears, the people around them couldn't see his existence at all. With the appearance of Afro-dude, Keigo was almost convinced that the woman just now had not been a human being. Yet, the same people without spiritual awareness, who couldn't see the God of Death now, had been able to see her. What was going on?
Keigo and Mizuiro looked at each other, but since it seemed there were no signs of other abnormal situations occurring anytime soon after Afro-dude's arrival, they could try to forget the strange feeling left in their hearts and return to their normal lives. And, fortunately, the enigmatic female spirit did not cause any other anomalies to arise in them.
However, for the town they lived in, the incident was merely the beginning of all manner of abnormal phenomenon...
Afterwards, in the surrounding areas centered on Kurakura Town and Naruki City, many people began to say that they had seen a "woman who covered half of her face with a skull-shaped mask." For over a year, reports of these sightings kept streaming in, including from people who usually could not detect the supernatural. In addition to Afro-san, the Quincy Uryū Ishida also noticed her reiatsu presence, but whenever they rushed to the scene, the dole-faced woman had long since vanished, with the only sign of her appearance being surrounding witnesses who anxiously discussed what they had just seen. Even those who never believed in spirits before were thoroughly spooked by her presence. Finally, someone managed to take a photo of her, which turned into a wide-spread supernatural event across the country. Rumors on the internet abounded: She was a real ghost, the photo was just an edit, she was an inter-dimensional invader... It became the talk of the town. Then, a full year after the first sighting, news finally reached the ears of a certain producer of a paranormal TV show...
The producer was annoyed that the show he was in charge of kept wandering between prime time and late night due to ratings issues, and when he saw the photo taken at the moment the female ghost's appearance, he immediately saw the potential. It was an idea akin to reviving the dead.
The studio producer loved the program more than the eponymous host himself, and he quickly wrote a pitch for the project. The title unabashedly used the name of the host, further highlighting the fact that, in truth, the two could never be separated in the minds of the viewers.
- 『Don Kanonji and the Casual Soul Realm Assault Trip! The premier spiritualist of the century, brings his distinct laugh and pose once more to Karakura Town, the place he calls his second home. Watch as he pursues a sudden appearance in the dark: the invisible Skeleton Masked Woman! This special episode will take place in the very spot where the highest rated episode of the show was filmed!" 』
And so, the supernatural show host, idol, and outstanding psychic teacher, Don Kanonji, set off once more...
To Karakura Town.
| Volume 1 | |
| Volume 2 | |
- Return to main