Bleach: Cero Devastador

When my eyes opened, it felt like everything had been a dream. My mother, my father… my friends and my brothers on the streets. My death.

A spot that resembled a filthy corner of run-down houses very similar to the trenches I had been shot on, even if completely different in aura. The vivid remembrance of all the pain I had been through convinced me that everything hadn't been a dream.

I was wearing a white Hakama that was so clean it contrasted massively with the dirty environment that looked so eerie. I saw people living their daily lives out of these trenches. Some walking on sandals, some barefoot.

There was anxiety and tension in the air and the sky was just as blue with the same clouds as before. With not much to think about, I decided to venture... I was never one to stand around and dilly-dally, fruit of years in captivity.

'I just died so what's this place?' I thought, never one to be religious but I believed that if there was an afterlife, I surely was not going to heaven and this may be a filthy corner, but... I expected hell to be more interesting. 

There were stalls selling food and miscellaneous. They were talking in Japanese, but I couldn't recognise this place at all in Japan. I peeked at the same words written in many of them.

'Rokungai'.

...

"Excuse me, could you tell me what this place is?" I asked a man, but he hushed me away—not as if I was a pest, but as if he was scared of me. I repeated the process a few times and it yielded the same result, I was being ignored.

I detected a few gazes on me, some were from kids hiding in the shadows, wearing dirty rags and looking like gangs of their own. And most importantly... those boys had swords.

'Interesting...'

It gave me the impression of it being a very backward and impolite society… that was until I found another young man who looked like me. He was wearing a dirty-ragged black Hakama instead. If I had to say, he looked like he had been here for a lot longer than me. And he was asking people the same thing; he wondered where we were. 

I decided to approach him since we were technically in the same boat. 

"Hey, are you lost too?" I said to him. The boy made a rather disgruntling expression and looked at me up and down before sighing. 

"You should go, don't get close to me again".

"... I am Ryōma, what's your name?" Instead of backing off, I approached him more with a smile.

I detected something in him, something I had already seen before. Those guys headed our way.

"You have to go, quickly!" He panicked

"Why...?" I smiled even harder when I saw them come to us with their raunchy way of walking and holding their swords. 

"Oi nii-chan, are you lost?~" One of them asked and hooked his arms around the boy I was talking to, the other two hooked their arms around me.

"Yes, I was just asking my friend here what this place is called?"

"You're new around here, huh. This is the Rokungai (Town of Wandering Souls), the afterlife. If you were sent around these trenches... you weren't exactly a saint, were you?"

"Sorry, I can barely remember".

"Come, we will give you a tour and get you up to touch, right, Murasaki-kun?" He punched the boy's shoulder, I little too harsh. 

I allowed those boys to lead me into a corner with my eyes on that sword at all times. After all, I don't know how strong they are, but to keep those precious swords in such a bad state... they can't be too skilled. 

"Look nii-chan, you're going to go out there and lure some people here so that we can take some goodies, alright?" He said, pointing the ragged edge of that sword at me. 

"... and if I don't want to?".

"Then you're going to fucking die again".

I couldn't hold back my laughter. Those goons stared at each other and then at me laughing as if I was a lunatic, even the boy who had previously tried to help me, wondered if I was okay in the head. 

"Then the answer is: I don't want to" I answered. 

Without mediating words, the man that I recognised as the leader pounced on me with a sword in hand, the alley was empty; no one was going to come to rescue me. He slashed his sword forward with a maniacal expression that I could only sigh upon seeing. 

*RUMBLE!*

I didn't notice the world begin to tremble. With my hand, I caught his sword which looked as if it was moving in slow motion. Still, its ragged edge managed to pierce my palm. 

"What!–"

*BOOOMMMM!!*

I kicked that man in the chest with all my strength; he released his grasp on the sword but the next thing baffled me. He shot out like a cannon and impacted one of the walls of these buildings, bursting through it and shooting debris everywhere. The commission called for the attention of new onlookers. 

"Impossible, what a powerful Reiatsu!"

"Leave Gakurou there, let's go before the shinigami comes!"

Everyone gasped, including me. I stared at my foot which was now smoking but scratchless, surely such an impact should have at least broken a bone, but no... not a single dent. 

'Where the hell did this strength come from?' I wondered, while deep in my thoughts somebody took my wrist and led me away, it was the boy from before who by now was all pale.

I didn't question his motives and just followed him to wherever he was leading me, still deep in thought. We came to a stop at least four blocks down and were still able to hear the shouts of the commotion I caused. 

"W-Who are you?" He asked me with an anxious voice, taking a peek out of the alley to make sure no one was following us. 

"What do you mean?" I asked him back, I noticed I was still holding the guy's sword with my bleeding hand.

"You're not a shinigami, are you?" He exhaled a tired breath and collapsed on the filthy ground. I copied him.

"Shinigami? I don't know what you're talking about... I arrived here today" I laughed, happy that I now had a sword but still feeling something within me that wasn't quite right. 

As if this was not the right word for me to hold. 

I shrugged the thought to the back of my head and turned to the boy. 

"I am Ryōma, what's your name?" I repeated. The boy relented eventually with a sigh.

"Nice to meet you, I am Murasaki... are you sure you're not a shinigami in disguise?".

"Give it a rest man..."