The Darkness In Our Hearts (TDiOH Bk1)

Chapter 15: Stripes and Strife

I laid staring at the blue sky, buildings on either side reaching upwards. I blinked lazily over and over, probably the only thing I felt like doing at the moment. I didn't want to move; I planned to stay exactly in the same spot until someone came to kill me.

I deserved to die after what I did.

A shadow fell over me and I tilted my head slightly to look at the person. He had some weird striped hat on and when I looked him over, I noticed he was wearing plat-formed shoes and held a cane.

"Well, well, well. It seems an angel has fallen from the sky," he said in a deep voice.

"Tch." I rolled my head to the side, avoiding his piercing stare. "More like a demon rising from hell."

"Hmm," was his only reply.

Something niggled at the back of my mind: how can he see me?

"Who are you? Better yet, what are you?" I questioned.

"Just call me Mister Hat-n-Clogs for now," he mused, crouching down beside my head. "What's your name, soul reaper?"

"Kera Sebonsai," I replied, my mind still comprehending why someone would call themselves 'Mister Hat-N-Clogs'. Then my mind whirled because he knew what a soul reaper was.

"I've heard a lot about you, Kera."

"How?" I asked harshly, gritting my teeth and facing him.

He stood back up and held out his hand.

"I have my ways."

I contemplated just remaining on the ground, wallowing in my sorrow.

Weakling. Can't even master your own guilt.

I shoved Hat-N-Clogs' hand away, pushing myself off the ground. I dusted myself off and inspected my surroundings a bit more. There were a couple of deserted stores lining the streets, squashed buildings between slabs of concrete. A few people wandered around, but it seemed that no one could see the two of us.

"So, Mister, what's your deal?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest. "You shouldn't be able to see me, but here we are, having a conversation. Then you say you know me; I've only been here once before and I've never met you before in my life."

"I have my ways, Kera. And I know what you are," he stated and a cold washed over me as I stared at him. "Now, tell me, how did you get that way and why are you not in the soul society?"

I swallowed the lump in my throat and opened my mouth to speak. It wasn't as if I trusted him; it was more as if the words wanted to be free. For so long, I had kept most of these things bottled up and here I was, pouring it all out to some weird man with high spiritual energy.

I explained everything, including finding the hollow mask when I first awakened in one of the poorer districts outside the soul society and how I had destroyed it when some soul reapers found me. I explained the soul reaper academy and how I finally got accepted into Squad 11 but then everything started to go wrong.

When I got to the part about my zanpakuto, I almost couldn't say it.

"My zanpakuto spirit," I said, knowing if I said his name, I would break down. "He left me and now there's nothing in my sword. After that, I went to seek advice from my captain and then something attacked one of the main gates surrounding the soul society. I got blamed for it and I tried to protest but something assaulted me in my head."

I took a deep breath, hands clenched into fists as I recalled what had happened. "I got startled and drew out my zanpakuto and before I knew it, I had cut my lieutenant across the chest. Captain Zaraki attacked me and I realised that if I stayed, he and the rest of the squad would kill me. So I came to the world of the Living."

Glancing around, I gave a hysterical bark of laughter. "I went from one of the strongest to nothing in little less than a week. I guess you were right when you said an angel had fallen."

"So you say you've lost your zanpakuto spirit?" he queried.

"He actually wasn't mine to begin with, so I can't actually call him mine, can I?"

"Hmm," was his only reply before he gestured with a finger for me to follow him. "I have some theories but come with me first and we can get you into a gigai. I'm pretty sure some of your fellow soul reaper buddies might come for you once they figure out where you have gone."

Drained, I followed after him as we zigzagged through the town. I guessed it was Karakura town because we past the same park that we defeated that leviathan of a Hollow. There was still gorged earth in the middle.

I stood outside the front of a queer little shop, two children sweeping. Well, the girl was sweeping; the other, a red haired boy, was swinging his broom around.

"Jinta, Ururu, go and prepare a room for our guest and tell Tessai to ready a gigai," Mister Hat-N-Clogs said, holding his fan before his face.

The children, although curious and grumbling under their breaths, heading inside quickly. He turned to me, pointing his cane at me. I noticed a blue symbol on the bottom but I had no time to consider it when he spoke again.

"Draw your zanpakuto, Kera," he commanded, closing his fan with a snap, still pointing the cane at me.

I placed my hand on the hilt, feeling it's emptiness before drawing it. The blade didn't glimmer in the sun and just as I had fully unsheathed it, spider-like cracks formed all over it.

With a single crack, my zanpakuto was reduced to slivers of steel, all which clattered to the stone ground at my feet. My eyes wide, I glanced between the fragments and the hilt, which trembled greatly in my hands.

I started to hyperventilate, falling to my knees, but every sound and feeling seemed dulled as I grasped some of the fragments between my fingers. I clenched my hands into fists, barely feeling the bite of metal as blood ran between my fingers and hit the ground.

Mister Hat-N-Clogs' cane tapped my wrists gently, but it was as if I had been shocked, opening my hands and letting the shards fall. I jumped, rocking backwards up onto my feet before falling backwards, my bloodied hands planted behind me to stop my fall.

There was a deep throbbing in my hands and it felt like someone was constricting my chest, because there was a burning in my lungs, making it hurt to breath. When I raised a hand up to my face, I felt tears and I was sure I left bloodied smears when clearing them away furiously.

"I thought that would happen," mused Mister Hat-N-Clogs and my head snapped up.

A fury like no other filled me, an anger that I didn't know I had. "You!" I screamed at him, pushing myself off the ground.

I took a step, intent on wrapping my hands around his throat, but the burning anger seeped away, leaving behind a tiredness I couldn't comprehend. Drained, I staggered forward, eyesight blurring.

Blinking, I realised I was clutching the front of his shirt and I had sunk back to the floor, taking him with me.

"Kera," I heard him say, his voice rumbling through his chest. My eyes widened before he had said any more, my heart stuttering painfully as his words made my world crash around me. "I'm sorry to say that you're not a soul reaper anymore."