Fanfiction | Dead Man Walking 1
Title: Dead Man Walking
Fandom: Bleach
Main Character: Hitsugaya Toushirou
Rating: PG13-ish
Warnings: Blood, gore, sporatic Hitsu-whumping, language, spoilers I suppose, author's inability to stay consistent with a single genre
Timeline: This story follows the manga's timeline, disregarding the Bounto Arc completely. It takes place after the war with Aizen has begun.
Disclaimer: I do not own Hitsugaya or Bleach or anything else that I do not own.
A/N: Because this is a reincarnation-based fic, it will be one or two chapters until any real canon characters are introduced. So try to put up with me for just a bit longer, okay?
Summary: Hitsugaya's disappearance left Seireitei with plenty of unanswered questions, but when a boy, identical to the supposedly late taichou, appears on Earth, to what lengths will everyone go to find out why? And when the answer does come, will it be too late?
~*~
“What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us”
If God Was One of Us, Joan Osborn
~*~
Chapter One
Ignorance Before Bliss
~*~
“And here I thought you had learned your lesson.”
“Some things never change. Other things … are always changing.”
“A dragon never takes defeat lightly.”
“Taichou! What are you doing?!”
“Well, it was fun while it lasted.”
“You never did them any good. But perhaps, you may prove beneficial to me.”
“Where am I? Who are you? Who … am I?”
You are not who you are supposed to be.
~*~
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Click.
“Gooooooood morning, Karakura! It’s six o’ clock sharp Monday morning, the weather’s perfect, and we’re-”
A slender, well toned arm reached out to turn off the alarm clock then fell limply back down to the side of the bed.
Silence prevailed for several blissful minutes before…
“Nii-chaaaaan!” came a voice far too loud and optimistic for this early in the morning. The voice was accompanied by a body which then proceeded to slam itself down onto the bed. “Time to wake up!”
“Gaagh! How many times do I have to tell you?! Don’t do that! Honestly! The day you listen to me, I bet hell will freeze over!” a gruff voice, very much in contrast to the happy-go-lucky one that had come before it, shouted angrily as covers flew in every which direction. A miniature wrestling match ensued.
“The day I listen to you will be the day you actually wake up in the morning, so yes, most likely hell will freeze over,” the first voice smirked triumphantly when its owner easily overpowered her opponent.
“Yeah, yeah. Now get out of my room, baka-nee-san!” A few well aimed pillows later, the owner of the room was once again alone. He sighed, running his fingers through his hair before finally searching his closet for a clean uniform.
He did not like mornings. He hadn’t always felt that way, but recently they were bothering him more and more. There was just something about them that always made him wish he didn’t even exist. Maybe it was those dreams he’d been having lately, he mused absently. But, no. That didn’t make sense. Dreams didn’t make you want to disappear, did they?
With a wry smirk, he threw on the Mashiba Middle School uniform and trudged into the bathroom. The sight that met him in the mirror was not pretty. Bed head with hair like his? It was downright frightening. He forced a comb through most of it before getting impatient and moving on to gel. He barely needed any; his hair tended to style itself. As he washed his hands, he continued to watch his reflection in the mirror. His eyes traced a thin scar that ran from the center of his brow down diagonally to his right ear, then hastily turned the other way to grab his toothbrush. After a few more minutes of getting himself ready, he left the bathroom, grabbed his backpack, and headed downstairs. Something smelled good in the kitchen.
“Did you brush your teeth?”
“Where’s Okkaa-san?” he replied with another question, not bothering to answer hers.
“Already left for work. And Gankooyaji’s still in bed.”
The boy snorted as he set down his school bag in the living room and entered the kitchen, searching for the source of the smell. It was his sister, flipping something over the stove. Sure, he had thought it smelled good, but… “What is that?” he asked, pointing to the flat, doughy object she was currently fighting with a spatula.
“Pancakes! American food’s all the rage these days. I thought I’d try and make some,” she grinned as she finally managed to force the now golden-brown concoctions from the pan. She tossed one on a plate and handed it to him. “Tell me what you think.”
He did. “It looks like road kill.”
“Looks don’t matter when it comes to food!” she huffed defensively, bonking him on the head with her free hand. “Now, hurry up and eat! We’re going to have to walk to school today.”
“I only answered your stupid question,” he grumbled more to himself than to her as he rubbed his sore head and sat down at the dining table, forcing a bite of the foreign substance down his throat. He stopped for a moment, staring down at the pancake awkwardly. Then he continued eating.
It was really good.
~*~
“Kou-kun! Kou-kun!”
“Don’t call me that! It’s Kouryuu! My name is Shi-mi-zu Kou-ryuu!” the boy shouted hoarsely as he and his sister made it to his middle school just in time for one of the most annoying people he knew to greet him.
“But ‘Kouryuu’ doesn’t match you at all!” Yamashima Miki exalted as he caught up with the brother-sister duo. “See, this is how it works. Akane,” he pointed to Kouryuu’s sister, “is Ane-san because she’s like everybody’s big sister! And you, my friend, are Kou-kun because you’re anything but a dragon!”
“That’s stupid,” Kouryuu grunted, eyes narrowing as Akane muffled a giggle.
“My logic is undeniable!” Miki shouted, shaking his fist overdramatically as he too laughed at his friend’s lack of anything resembling a sense of humor. Just before Kouryuu was about to explode however, he grabbed his hand and ran off. “Bye, Ane-san!”
“Bye, Miki! Bye, Kouryuu! Have a good day!” she called back, waving as her little brother battled with the over-exuberant Miki all the way through the front gates. Once they were out of sight, she continued on her way to Karakura High. And as she thought of what she had just seen this morning, she couldn’t help but smile.
The way he had been a couple of months ago, she had been afraid he would never recover.
~*~
“So you really think that’s him?” asked a be-hatted figure, sitting down on a park bench across the street from Mashiba Junior High School. His tone was a strange mixture of derisiveness and sympathy that, combined with his drawl, made him sound as if he was rather enjoying himself.
The answer came from the other side of a tree directly behind the bench. It was sure and steadfast, disregarding the figure’s antagonistic mannerisms completely. “It’s him.”
“How can you be so sure? You barely saw him before that other brat kidnapped him,” the figure chuckled. Now it was obvious he was having fun. “And I’d imagine hiding back there like you are would only lessen your chance of being able to tell. Kids are dyeing their hair left and right these days. And plenty of them are grumpy and anti-social. It’s very possible that this kid is just another mindless drone of the world’s modern society.”
Silence followed as if the figure’s companion was not willing to even dignify him with a reply. This reaction only seemed to fuel his amusement. He stood up, adjusting his hat to shade his eyes and swinging his cane in widening arcs with practiced dexterity.
“You know very well that if this kid were him it would defy all known laws governing life and death.”
“It’s him.”
“So we scrap their rules and make our own, then?” he grinned as he set off down the street. “Sounds good to me.”
~*~
Kouryuu tried his best to ignore Miki’s loud chattering, but he was failing miserably. He had no interest in the fact that he had gone to a concert over the weekend nor in the fact that he had met a cute girl at said concert. In fact, he had already said this several times this morning. But none-the-less, Miki was determined to give him every last detail.
“Ah! Kouryuu-kun! Miki-kun!”
Kouryuu, glad for any interruption at all, turned around to see Suzuki Nyoko and Nakamura Takeshi walking toward them. Nyoko was the one who had called; she was the only person in the whole blasted school who ever addressed him by his actual name. He opened his mouth to reply, but Miki beat him to it.
“Ta-kun! Nyoko-chan! Good morning!” he beamed, jumping up from his seat and running over to the two newcomers.
“How can you be so energetic so early on a Monday?” Takeshi whined, setting his book bag down on his desk.
“He’s always energetic, Takeshi-kun,” Nyoko smiled in response.
Kouryuu watched the conversation without getting up. He had wanted to say something to Nyoko, but when he thought about it there really was no point. Besides, talking with people his age had never been a strong skill of his. Give him a psychology professor or an English teacher and usually he could get involved in a worthwhile discussion. But with someone like Miki constantly dragging him everywhere, he was very much out of his element.
Speaking of which… He sighed.
Three.
Two.
One.
“Kou-kuuuun!” Miki wailed. Kouryuu reluctantly got up from his seat and walked over to them. Well, he walked half-way. The other half consisted of Miki once again grabbing his arm and hauling him over. “Honestly! If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t talk to anybody who wasn’t already dead!”
Kouryuu offered the boy a deadly glare. Unfortunately, by now he had done the same so often that it no longer fazed him. Takeshi laughed a bit, but Nyoko looked worried. One look at her face and with a sigh he gave in, slumping his shoulders in defeat.
“Don’t waste your time on the likes of him, Kou,” Takeshi smirked, still laughing. “He’ll just take whatever you say as a compliment.”
“I resent that, coming from someone named ‘Takeshi,’” Miki countered instantly.
“And what’s wrong with my name?!”
“It’s weird!”
“And ‘Miki’ isn’t?! You’re named after a plant stem for goodness’ sake!”
“So are you!”
“They’re at it again…” Nyoko sighed, turning to him with an expression somewhere between guilt and amusement.
“They’re idiots,” Kouryuu huffed in reply.
“Kouryuu-kun…” she began, but whatever she had been about to say was cut short as Kihashi-sensei entered the room.
“Alright! Class is starting. Everybody in your seats so I can check who’s here.”
Kouryuu sat back down, looking out the window and tuning the professor out, a task much easier than dealing with Miki. He frowned. It was going to be a long day.
~*~
Shimizu Akane trudged out of the front gates of Karakura High, sighing with relief that school was finally out. After a quick perimeter check, she found her little brother idling by a ‘no parking’ sign. Grinning broadly, she ran over to him, and they began their trek back home.
It didn’t take her long to realize that something was wrong. A pout forming along her lips, she set her hand on his head and proceeded to rub it viciously back and forth across his scalp.
“What the hell are you doing!?” he shouted, trying desperately to shove her away, but she would not be swayed. She only continued the motion faster and faster.
“Something’s wrong! I know it! But you won’t talk to me unless I make you!” she whined. “So I’m gonna make sure you tell me! If you don’t tell me, I’ll never stop! Never, ever, ever, ever-!”
“Okay, okay! I get it! Just stop already!”
Akane grinned, flushed with victory as she finally let up, leaving Kouryuu to cradle his head indignantly. He was adorable, looking for all the world as if he had just been violated or something. But the underlying coldness that plagued his otherwise disgruntled expression brought her back to the reality.
“So what’s wrong?”
The tiniest tinge of a blush crept across his cheeks as he turned away from her, frown deepening. “Miki … was talking about how I can see ghosts.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Only two people knew of Kouryuu’s interesting ability: her and Miki. And they had found out after spying on him; he had never intended to tell either of them if given the choice. What made it even worse was that Miki didn’t believe it in the slightest. “Well, at least he’s acknowledged it, right?”
She received an aggravated grunt for her efforts to console him. “He was only joking around, teasing me. He still doesn’t believe me. He just thinks I’m insane,” he mumbled.
Akane didn’t know what to do. Kouryuu had never been very social, and as long as she had known him he had always seemed detached. But despite all of his complaints and insults, he really did care about what people thought of him. He really did care about people.
He really did care.
And it hurt him to know that someone else took something so important to him completely for granted.
She didn’t realize her compassion had reached her expression until she noticed he had stopped walking. She turned around to see him, arms folded across his chest and looking anywhere but at her. “Look,” he grumbled, “it’s really not that big of a deal. But I know you’re going to obsess over it forever if you don’t get it out of your system. So … I give you permission.”
“Permission?” she asked, bewildered. When his pink-tinged cheeks took on a raspberry hue however, she finally understood. Eyes welling up and smile growing all too big for her face, she dropped her backpack and jumped about two inches in front of his nose in her excitement.
She ruffled that adorable white hair, kissed the nose between two embarrassed green eyes, and hugged her little brother so tight she doubted he could even breathe.
“I love you, Shirou-chan!”
And, despite it all, Shimizu Kouryuu couldn’t suppress the smallest of smiles.
~*~
Fandom: Bleach
Main Character: Hitsugaya Toushirou
Rating: PG13-ish
Warnings: Blood, gore, sporatic Hitsu-whumping, language, spoilers I suppose, author's inability to stay consistent with a single genre
Timeline: This story follows the manga's timeline, disregarding the Bounto Arc completely. It takes place after the war with Aizen has begun.
Disclaimer: I do not own Hitsugaya or Bleach or anything else that I do not own.
A/N: Because this is a reincarnation-based fic, it will be one or two chapters until any real canon characters are introduced. So try to put up with me for just a bit longer, okay?
Summary: Hitsugaya's disappearance left Seireitei with plenty of unanswered questions, but when a boy, identical to the supposedly late taichou, appears on Earth, to what lengths will everyone go to find out why? And when the answer does come, will it be too late?
~*~
“What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us”
If God Was One of Us, Joan Osborn
~*~
Chapter One
Ignorance Before Bliss
~*~
“And here I thought you had learned your lesson.”
“Some things never change. Other things … are always changing.”
“A dragon never takes defeat lightly.”
“Taichou! What are you doing?!”
“Well, it was fun while it lasted.”
“You never did them any good. But perhaps, you may prove beneficial to me.”
“Where am I? Who are you? Who … am I?”
You are not who you are supposed to be.
~*~
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Click.
“Gooooooood morning, Karakura! It’s six o’ clock sharp Monday morning, the weather’s perfect, and we’re-”
A slender, well toned arm reached out to turn off the alarm clock then fell limply back down to the side of the bed.
Silence prevailed for several blissful minutes before…
“Nii-chaaaaan!” came a voice far too loud and optimistic for this early in the morning. The voice was accompanied by a body which then proceeded to slam itself down onto the bed. “Time to wake up!”
“Gaagh! How many times do I have to tell you?! Don’t do that! Honestly! The day you listen to me, I bet hell will freeze over!” a gruff voice, very much in contrast to the happy-go-lucky one that had come before it, shouted angrily as covers flew in every which direction. A miniature wrestling match ensued.
“The day I listen to you will be the day you actually wake up in the morning, so yes, most likely hell will freeze over,” the first voice smirked triumphantly when its owner easily overpowered her opponent.
“Yeah, yeah. Now get out of my room, baka-nee-san!” A few well aimed pillows later, the owner of the room was once again alone. He sighed, running his fingers through his hair before finally searching his closet for a clean uniform.
He did not like mornings. He hadn’t always felt that way, but recently they were bothering him more and more. There was just something about them that always made him wish he didn’t even exist. Maybe it was those dreams he’d been having lately, he mused absently. But, no. That didn’t make sense. Dreams didn’t make you want to disappear, did they?
With a wry smirk, he threw on the Mashiba Middle School uniform and trudged into the bathroom. The sight that met him in the mirror was not pretty. Bed head with hair like his? It was downright frightening. He forced a comb through most of it before getting impatient and moving on to gel. He barely needed any; his hair tended to style itself. As he washed his hands, he continued to watch his reflection in the mirror. His eyes traced a thin scar that ran from the center of his brow down diagonally to his right ear, then hastily turned the other way to grab his toothbrush. After a few more minutes of getting himself ready, he left the bathroom, grabbed his backpack, and headed downstairs. Something smelled good in the kitchen.
“Did you brush your teeth?”
“Where’s Okkaa-san?” he replied with another question, not bothering to answer hers.
“Already left for work. And Gankooyaji’s still in bed.”
The boy snorted as he set down his school bag in the living room and entered the kitchen, searching for the source of the smell. It was his sister, flipping something over the stove. Sure, he had thought it smelled good, but… “What is that?” he asked, pointing to the flat, doughy object she was currently fighting with a spatula.
“Pancakes! American food’s all the rage these days. I thought I’d try and make some,” she grinned as she finally managed to force the now golden-brown concoctions from the pan. She tossed one on a plate and handed it to him. “Tell me what you think.”
He did. “It looks like road kill.”
“Looks don’t matter when it comes to food!” she huffed defensively, bonking him on the head with her free hand. “Now, hurry up and eat! We’re going to have to walk to school today.”
“I only answered your stupid question,” he grumbled more to himself than to her as he rubbed his sore head and sat down at the dining table, forcing a bite of the foreign substance down his throat. He stopped for a moment, staring down at the pancake awkwardly. Then he continued eating.
It was really good.
~*~
“Kou-kun! Kou-kun!”
“Don’t call me that! It’s Kouryuu! My name is Shi-mi-zu Kou-ryuu!” the boy shouted hoarsely as he and his sister made it to his middle school just in time for one of the most annoying people he knew to greet him.
“But ‘Kouryuu’ doesn’t match you at all!” Yamashima Miki exalted as he caught up with the brother-sister duo. “See, this is how it works. Akane,” he pointed to Kouryuu’s sister, “is Ane-san because she’s like everybody’s big sister! And you, my friend, are Kou-kun because you’re anything but a dragon!”
“That’s stupid,” Kouryuu grunted, eyes narrowing as Akane muffled a giggle.
“My logic is undeniable!” Miki shouted, shaking his fist overdramatically as he too laughed at his friend’s lack of anything resembling a sense of humor. Just before Kouryuu was about to explode however, he grabbed his hand and ran off. “Bye, Ane-san!”
“Bye, Miki! Bye, Kouryuu! Have a good day!” she called back, waving as her little brother battled with the over-exuberant Miki all the way through the front gates. Once they were out of sight, she continued on her way to Karakura High. And as she thought of what she had just seen this morning, she couldn’t help but smile.
The way he had been a couple of months ago, she had been afraid he would never recover.
~*~
“So you really think that’s him?” asked a be-hatted figure, sitting down on a park bench across the street from Mashiba Junior High School. His tone was a strange mixture of derisiveness and sympathy that, combined with his drawl, made him sound as if he was rather enjoying himself.
The answer came from the other side of a tree directly behind the bench. It was sure and steadfast, disregarding the figure’s antagonistic mannerisms completely. “It’s him.”
“How can you be so sure? You barely saw him before that other brat kidnapped him,” the figure chuckled. Now it was obvious he was having fun. “And I’d imagine hiding back there like you are would only lessen your chance of being able to tell. Kids are dyeing their hair left and right these days. And plenty of them are grumpy and anti-social. It’s very possible that this kid is just another mindless drone of the world’s modern society.”
Silence followed as if the figure’s companion was not willing to even dignify him with a reply. This reaction only seemed to fuel his amusement. He stood up, adjusting his hat to shade his eyes and swinging his cane in widening arcs with practiced dexterity.
“You know very well that if this kid were him it would defy all known laws governing life and death.”
“It’s him.”
“So we scrap their rules and make our own, then?” he grinned as he set off down the street. “Sounds good to me.”
~*~
Kouryuu tried his best to ignore Miki’s loud chattering, but he was failing miserably. He had no interest in the fact that he had gone to a concert over the weekend nor in the fact that he had met a cute girl at said concert. In fact, he had already said this several times this morning. But none-the-less, Miki was determined to give him every last detail.
“Ah! Kouryuu-kun! Miki-kun!”
Kouryuu, glad for any interruption at all, turned around to see Suzuki Nyoko and Nakamura Takeshi walking toward them. Nyoko was the one who had called; she was the only person in the whole blasted school who ever addressed him by his actual name. He opened his mouth to reply, but Miki beat him to it.
“Ta-kun! Nyoko-chan! Good morning!” he beamed, jumping up from his seat and running over to the two newcomers.
“How can you be so energetic so early on a Monday?” Takeshi whined, setting his book bag down on his desk.
“He’s always energetic, Takeshi-kun,” Nyoko smiled in response.
Kouryuu watched the conversation without getting up. He had wanted to say something to Nyoko, but when he thought about it there really was no point. Besides, talking with people his age had never been a strong skill of his. Give him a psychology professor or an English teacher and usually he could get involved in a worthwhile discussion. But with someone like Miki constantly dragging him everywhere, he was very much out of his element.
Speaking of which… He sighed.
Three.
Two.
One.
“Kou-kuuuun!” Miki wailed. Kouryuu reluctantly got up from his seat and walked over to them. Well, he walked half-way. The other half consisted of Miki once again grabbing his arm and hauling him over. “Honestly! If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t talk to anybody who wasn’t already dead!”
Kouryuu offered the boy a deadly glare. Unfortunately, by now he had done the same so often that it no longer fazed him. Takeshi laughed a bit, but Nyoko looked worried. One look at her face and with a sigh he gave in, slumping his shoulders in defeat.
“Don’t waste your time on the likes of him, Kou,” Takeshi smirked, still laughing. “He’ll just take whatever you say as a compliment.”
“I resent that, coming from someone named ‘Takeshi,’” Miki countered instantly.
“And what’s wrong with my name?!”
“It’s weird!”
“And ‘Miki’ isn’t?! You’re named after a plant stem for goodness’ sake!”
“So are you!”
“They’re at it again…” Nyoko sighed, turning to him with an expression somewhere between guilt and amusement.
“They’re idiots,” Kouryuu huffed in reply.
“Kouryuu-kun…” she began, but whatever she had been about to say was cut short as Kihashi-sensei entered the room.
“Alright! Class is starting. Everybody in your seats so I can check who’s here.”
Kouryuu sat back down, looking out the window and tuning the professor out, a task much easier than dealing with Miki. He frowned. It was going to be a long day.
~*~
Shimizu Akane trudged out of the front gates of Karakura High, sighing with relief that school was finally out. After a quick perimeter check, she found her little brother idling by a ‘no parking’ sign. Grinning broadly, she ran over to him, and they began their trek back home.
It didn’t take her long to realize that something was wrong. A pout forming along her lips, she set her hand on his head and proceeded to rub it viciously back and forth across his scalp.
“What the hell are you doing!?” he shouted, trying desperately to shove her away, but she would not be swayed. She only continued the motion faster and faster.
“Something’s wrong! I know it! But you won’t talk to me unless I make you!” she whined. “So I’m gonna make sure you tell me! If you don’t tell me, I’ll never stop! Never, ever, ever, ever-!”
“Okay, okay! I get it! Just stop already!”
Akane grinned, flushed with victory as she finally let up, leaving Kouryuu to cradle his head indignantly. He was adorable, looking for all the world as if he had just been violated or something. But the underlying coldness that plagued his otherwise disgruntled expression brought her back to the reality.
“So what’s wrong?”
The tiniest tinge of a blush crept across his cheeks as he turned away from her, frown deepening. “Miki … was talking about how I can see ghosts.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Only two people knew of Kouryuu’s interesting ability: her and Miki. And they had found out after spying on him; he had never intended to tell either of them if given the choice. What made it even worse was that Miki didn’t believe it in the slightest. “Well, at least he’s acknowledged it, right?”
She received an aggravated grunt for her efforts to console him. “He was only joking around, teasing me. He still doesn’t believe me. He just thinks I’m insane,” he mumbled.
Akane didn’t know what to do. Kouryuu had never been very social, and as long as she had known him he had always seemed detached. But despite all of his complaints and insults, he really did care about what people thought of him. He really did care about people.
He really did care.
And it hurt him to know that someone else took something so important to him completely for granted.
She didn’t realize her compassion had reached her expression until she noticed he had stopped walking. She turned around to see him, arms folded across his chest and looking anywhere but at her. “Look,” he grumbled, “it’s really not that big of a deal. But I know you’re going to obsess over it forever if you don’t get it out of your system. So … I give you permission.”
“Permission?” she asked, bewildered. When his pink-tinged cheeks took on a raspberry hue however, she finally understood. Eyes welling up and smile growing all too big for her face, she dropped her backpack and jumped about two inches in front of his nose in her excitement.
She ruffled that adorable white hair, kissed the nose between two embarrassed green eyes, and hugged her little brother so tight she doubted he could even breathe.
“I love you, Shirou-chan!”
And, despite it all, Shimizu Kouryuu couldn’t suppress the smallest of smiles.
~*~