The background to this whole fic will have been cobbled together from multiple ideas and discussion topics, including the Arrancar Arc Revised topic, a few posts from the Random Ideas topic, and the 'Swing the Blade Down' and 'Born of Hogyoku' topics (some of my posts in that very last topic that provide a good chunk of the background here, so you may wish to avoid reading it if you don't want like massive spoilers). This isn't going to be the run-of-the-mill "Make a small plot change and then rigidly stick to canon by the fingernails while kicking and screaming to fend off the whirlwind of butterfly changes that should be occurring" story.
Updates for as long as I have the enthusiasm to run with it. Better fic names requested than "Bleach Bastardised". Because for all the creativity I have when it comes to story ideas, I SUCK when it comes to titles.
---
Only a sliver of light shone down from the night sky, the new moon having occurred the day before. She was wary as she crouched on top of the pole: it had been a well-documented phenomena that Hollows liked to attack the human world at night close to the new moon, perhaps off some primal predatory instinct to strike with the least amount of light available to prey. Another thing made her careful of her surroundings, an anomaly that simply should not be occurring: in the two weeks since she had been posted in Karakura Town by her white-haired captain, not a single Hollow had shown up on radar.
A lesser shinigami would have brushed it off and been glad that he had less work to do. Not her. She just knew it meant a build-up to something big, in this spiritual hotbed.
Another thing confused her. In Karakura Town, there were so few spirits wandering around. A city of three hundred thousand humans should have been sprawling with the souls of the perished, yet she had encountered only a small handful that needed to be treated with Konso to be sent on to the Soul Society. Certainly, not every human remained attached to the material world after death, but many more should have than she had found.
Then there was her paranoia acting up, as if something was watching her at all times, like the hot breath of a rabid Hollow radiating down the back of her shihakusho. No matter where she went, she could never shake the feeling. At times, it became even more intense, subsiding only slightly at late night, when the human population mostly went to sleep. All in all, it all added up to something fishy going on. At times like this, she wished she could talk to her sister more easily, but cross-dimensional communications required more set-up than could normally be afforded to a personal sisterly chat. Her wages as a member of the 13th Division were not that generous.
Sighing, the Shinigami slowly rose up from her crouching position, and then started hopping over the power poles, making her way east across the river. Nimble of foot, she pulled off each step with the expertise of over a hundred years of training in the arts of battle, and much of that energy ended up expended towards impressing her captain. With a quick deep breath, she finally perched on another pole, intent on surveying the surrounding area for a few minutes. Her reverie was quickly broken.
“What are you doing here, Shinigami?â€
She had heard the words being spoken, but being a ‘ghost’ as she was, unseeable to most, had ignored them, assuming the voice to be speaking to somebody else. That was, up until the very last word was spoken. Startled at somebody calling her out by her status as a member of the Gotei 13, military of the afterlife, she turned her body and head around in a jolt in the direction of the voice, standing below her close to the base of the pole she currently was propped up on.
All she could ascertain was the figure was male by his voice. His body was far more slender and feminine in appearance, disguised by a cloak almost uniformly white in appearance, with a hood donned over the man’s face. All she could make out from the light of the street lamps were two dark eyes, boring into her own grey.
Anticipating her natural curiosity, the figure raised its arms to remove its hood, and she continued staring. A young human male of approximately teenage age coolly stared back at her, his small blue eyes stationary compared to what she felt were her own darting grey irises. Near-shoulder length dark hair framed his narrow, almost-perfectly angular face.
She must have been staring too long because his eyes narrowed, the surrounding skin folding in on itself, and he spoke, his voice noticeably angry. “I ask you again, what are you doing here, Shinigami? Your kind isn’t needed here.â€
Of all the nerve! she thought to herself, a tic developing on her forehead. She pushed that thought aside and went on autofire, questioning him, “Who are you? More importantly, how can you see me?†No normal human should have been able to see her unless she was inhabiting a gigai.
“Me?†The figure asked back, mockery subtly laced in his tone, a smirk working its way across his lean features. “I am this town’s guardian, something I do not need any help with in the least. Tell me, Shinigami, just how many Hollows have you killed or even sensed in the last few months?â€
She hadn’t been here for months, only a few weeks, but the mere question still tripped her danger senses in a flash. In less than the blink of an eye, she moved to stand in front of him, zanpakuto out and at the ready in case she needed to use it...only to find the man no longer there, instead standing on the street side opposite her, a narrow road separating the two. He gave a few brief tssks, raising his right hand to his face, fingers sliding up to the bridge of his nose. “Not just a shinigami, I see, but a rude one. Attacking me after I ask a few questions. The last shinigami stationed here, useless oaf he was, at least had the good sense to stay out of my way.â€
The words hit her with a sting, and she started clenching her teeth, fingers shaking as they turned white in their tight grip around her zanpakuto hilt, before she finally let it all out in a holler. “Who do you think you are, you asshole?! What do you have to do with the lack of Hollows around here?â€
His eyes gleamed with delight, as if he were demented. “Simple, I am a Quincy...the Last Quincy.†Seeing her flinch was all the proof he needed. “I see you know of the Quincy. You should know we were masters of reiatsu manipulation, unlike you stupid Shinigami. As a Quincy, I am able to feel jibakureis once they have partially developed into Hollows, while your inferior senses only tell you when there is a fully-developed Hollow around. Since I eliminate any jibakureis before they have a chance to grow further, there has not been a Hollow in Karakura Town in three months.â€
She reeled at the Quincy’s statement, taking a few steps back until her body was up against the power pole, eyes wide open with shock. “Three whole months?†She mouthed, astonished. “No wonder my radar never picked up any Hollows since I got here!†To her dismay, that last sentence was said out loud enough to be picked up by the newcomer.
The white-cloaked self-proclaimed guardian of Karakura Town snorted, before sneering at her, turning his face ugly, “Radar? You rely on a radar? You cannot even detect Hollows on your own? My, how the mighty Shinigami have fallen these days.â€
“Y-y-you!†She stuttered as she looked at him again, her anger coming faster than her words, creating a disconnect between mind and tongue. “Y-you! At least we don’t outright destroy souls with our zanpakuto!†Her face lit up at a thought, something that could abridge the two opposing sides here – her captain had always taught her to make peace, not war, wherever possible (unless it was a Hollow, of course). “Hey, wait a minute! If you can spot jibakureis, you can direct me to them ahead of time. That way I can purify them instead of-“
“There will be need for that,†The teenager interrupted her in his condescending tone, brushing aside a few loose strands of hair as his fingers found the bridge of his nose again, before bringing his hand back down in front of him in a flourish. “I learned how to make my arrows purify instead of destroy ages ago.â€
Her jaw dropped at that. Those who had actually paid attention in the Spiritual Arts Academy’s history class knew why the Quincy had been ordered exterminated. The Quincy had been several thousand strong at the time, and if even a one of those thousands had devised a way to do what the Shinigami could do, the whole affair could have been avoided. And this...this boy (she was already over a hundred and fifty, even if her physical appearance was that of a teenager – she felt she could quite rightly call him that) had managed to come up with something his more experienced predecessors had not?
It was simply outrageous.
So caught up in her internal thoughts she was, she barely missed him speak again. “So as you can see, stupid Shinigami, you are not needed here. Go back from whence you came, tell your superiors Karakura Town needs no Shinigami.â€
Red coated her vision for a few seconds, before the hazy curtain passed, her zanpakuto whispering sweet murmurs into her mind to calm down. Eyes readjusting, she forced her head to stop shaking and her teeth to stop chattering at the slight against herself and the implied one against her division and the Gotei 13 as a whole, only to nearly reignite she saw the Quincy boy walking away, his white attire sticking out in the pallor light of the surrounding streetlamps. That bastard, she thought to herself, How dare he walk away just like that?
It took a considerable amount of effort to restrain her choicer words (no matter how angry she got, it was still forbidden to kill a human without a very good reason, and she had a feeling getting into a war of words with him would quickly escalate into something she would regret) and call out at him, “What is your name, Quincy boy?â€
The Quincy barely graced her with one last look before continuing to walk away, finally speaking out loud as he turned to move again, “You may call me the Hermit.†He had paid no attention to her calling him a mere boy.
Quietly, watching the Quincy who titled himself as Hermit walk away, she was startled again to realise his footsteps made no noise. Only the chirping of cicadas and the soft breeze pierced the silence of night.
She should report this to her Captain. He would be interested to hear about this so-called Last Quincy, and how he had taken it upon himself to purge Karakura Town of Hollow presence. The Gotei 13 did not like any other spiritually-aware entities stepping on their toes, and this was more like her stomping on her fellow 3rd Seat’s toes whenever he got out of hand. The Quincy could have been lying about his arrows purifying instead of exterminating Hollows. She really should direct this to somebody of higher authority, who would probably send the task off to investigation by the 2nd Division.
But natural curiosity won out, as she turned to walk in the direction opposite that the Quincy had gone, intent on finding the local supply outpost for Shinigami posted in the real world. She had a gigai to retrieve and a mystery to solve, and Kiyone Kotetsu would stop at nothing to unravel it.
---
Random notes
Before the revelation that this is Kiyone Kotetsu in the last paragraph, there are a total of two hints that this isn't Rukia. The more blatant is in the second-to-last paragraph when she talks about her 'fellow' 3rd seat. The second is the mention of her 'sister', but since Rukia has a sister as well and this is supposed to be heavily AU one would assume Hisana is perhaps still alive. The 13th division is mentioned once, and Ukitake is mentioned once, though not by name (and 'white-haired captain' could refer to 3 people).
Kiyone being here instead of Rukia is plot-relevant, not just a change made to deviate the plot from canon more.
Ishida isn't wearing glasses in this scene. Every time he pushes the bridge of his nose is a result of his habit of pushing his glasses up when he is wearing them
I'm taking the demi-Hollow thing from Don Kanonji's storyline and running with it.
No matter what Ishida says about jibakureis and being 'the' guardian of Karakura Town, don't take everything he says at face value. There is a reason he is goading Kiyone beyond his normally acerbic attitude towards Shinigami.
Suggestions?
Updates for as long as I have the enthusiasm to run with it. Better fic names requested than "Bleach Bastardised". Because for all the creativity I have when it comes to story ideas, I SUCK when it comes to titles.
---
Only a sliver of light shone down from the night sky, the new moon having occurred the day before. She was wary as she crouched on top of the pole: it had been a well-documented phenomena that Hollows liked to attack the human world at night close to the new moon, perhaps off some primal predatory instinct to strike with the least amount of light available to prey. Another thing made her careful of her surroundings, an anomaly that simply should not be occurring: in the two weeks since she had been posted in Karakura Town by her white-haired captain, not a single Hollow had shown up on radar.
A lesser shinigami would have brushed it off and been glad that he had less work to do. Not her. She just knew it meant a build-up to something big, in this spiritual hotbed.
Another thing confused her. In Karakura Town, there were so few spirits wandering around. A city of three hundred thousand humans should have been sprawling with the souls of the perished, yet she had encountered only a small handful that needed to be treated with Konso to be sent on to the Soul Society. Certainly, not every human remained attached to the material world after death, but many more should have than she had found.
Then there was her paranoia acting up, as if something was watching her at all times, like the hot breath of a rabid Hollow radiating down the back of her shihakusho. No matter where she went, she could never shake the feeling. At times, it became even more intense, subsiding only slightly at late night, when the human population mostly went to sleep. All in all, it all added up to something fishy going on. At times like this, she wished she could talk to her sister more easily, but cross-dimensional communications required more set-up than could normally be afforded to a personal sisterly chat. Her wages as a member of the 13th Division were not that generous.
Sighing, the Shinigami slowly rose up from her crouching position, and then started hopping over the power poles, making her way east across the river. Nimble of foot, she pulled off each step with the expertise of over a hundred years of training in the arts of battle, and much of that energy ended up expended towards impressing her captain. With a quick deep breath, she finally perched on another pole, intent on surveying the surrounding area for a few minutes. Her reverie was quickly broken.
“What are you doing here, Shinigami?â€
She had heard the words being spoken, but being a ‘ghost’ as she was, unseeable to most, had ignored them, assuming the voice to be speaking to somebody else. That was, up until the very last word was spoken. Startled at somebody calling her out by her status as a member of the Gotei 13, military of the afterlife, she turned her body and head around in a jolt in the direction of the voice, standing below her close to the base of the pole she currently was propped up on.
All she could ascertain was the figure was male by his voice. His body was far more slender and feminine in appearance, disguised by a cloak almost uniformly white in appearance, with a hood donned over the man’s face. All she could make out from the light of the street lamps were two dark eyes, boring into her own grey.
Anticipating her natural curiosity, the figure raised its arms to remove its hood, and she continued staring. A young human male of approximately teenage age coolly stared back at her, his small blue eyes stationary compared to what she felt were her own darting grey irises. Near-shoulder length dark hair framed his narrow, almost-perfectly angular face.
She must have been staring too long because his eyes narrowed, the surrounding skin folding in on itself, and he spoke, his voice noticeably angry. “I ask you again, what are you doing here, Shinigami? Your kind isn’t needed here.â€
Of all the nerve! she thought to herself, a tic developing on her forehead. She pushed that thought aside and went on autofire, questioning him, “Who are you? More importantly, how can you see me?†No normal human should have been able to see her unless she was inhabiting a gigai.
“Me?†The figure asked back, mockery subtly laced in his tone, a smirk working its way across his lean features. “I am this town’s guardian, something I do not need any help with in the least. Tell me, Shinigami, just how many Hollows have you killed or even sensed in the last few months?â€
She hadn’t been here for months, only a few weeks, but the mere question still tripped her danger senses in a flash. In less than the blink of an eye, she moved to stand in front of him, zanpakuto out and at the ready in case she needed to use it...only to find the man no longer there, instead standing on the street side opposite her, a narrow road separating the two. He gave a few brief tssks, raising his right hand to his face, fingers sliding up to the bridge of his nose. “Not just a shinigami, I see, but a rude one. Attacking me after I ask a few questions. The last shinigami stationed here, useless oaf he was, at least had the good sense to stay out of my way.â€
The words hit her with a sting, and she started clenching her teeth, fingers shaking as they turned white in their tight grip around her zanpakuto hilt, before she finally let it all out in a holler. “Who do you think you are, you asshole?! What do you have to do with the lack of Hollows around here?â€
His eyes gleamed with delight, as if he were demented. “Simple, I am a Quincy...the Last Quincy.†Seeing her flinch was all the proof he needed. “I see you know of the Quincy. You should know we were masters of reiatsu manipulation, unlike you stupid Shinigami. As a Quincy, I am able to feel jibakureis once they have partially developed into Hollows, while your inferior senses only tell you when there is a fully-developed Hollow around. Since I eliminate any jibakureis before they have a chance to grow further, there has not been a Hollow in Karakura Town in three months.â€
She reeled at the Quincy’s statement, taking a few steps back until her body was up against the power pole, eyes wide open with shock. “Three whole months?†She mouthed, astonished. “No wonder my radar never picked up any Hollows since I got here!†To her dismay, that last sentence was said out loud enough to be picked up by the newcomer.
The white-cloaked self-proclaimed guardian of Karakura Town snorted, before sneering at her, turning his face ugly, “Radar? You rely on a radar? You cannot even detect Hollows on your own? My, how the mighty Shinigami have fallen these days.â€
“Y-y-you!†She stuttered as she looked at him again, her anger coming faster than her words, creating a disconnect between mind and tongue. “Y-you! At least we don’t outright destroy souls with our zanpakuto!†Her face lit up at a thought, something that could abridge the two opposing sides here – her captain had always taught her to make peace, not war, wherever possible (unless it was a Hollow, of course). “Hey, wait a minute! If you can spot jibakureis, you can direct me to them ahead of time. That way I can purify them instead of-“
“There will be need for that,†The teenager interrupted her in his condescending tone, brushing aside a few loose strands of hair as his fingers found the bridge of his nose again, before bringing his hand back down in front of him in a flourish. “I learned how to make my arrows purify instead of destroy ages ago.â€
Her jaw dropped at that. Those who had actually paid attention in the Spiritual Arts Academy’s history class knew why the Quincy had been ordered exterminated. The Quincy had been several thousand strong at the time, and if even a one of those thousands had devised a way to do what the Shinigami could do, the whole affair could have been avoided. And this...this boy (she was already over a hundred and fifty, even if her physical appearance was that of a teenager – she felt she could quite rightly call him that) had managed to come up with something his more experienced predecessors had not?
It was simply outrageous.
So caught up in her internal thoughts she was, she barely missed him speak again. “So as you can see, stupid Shinigami, you are not needed here. Go back from whence you came, tell your superiors Karakura Town needs no Shinigami.â€
Red coated her vision for a few seconds, before the hazy curtain passed, her zanpakuto whispering sweet murmurs into her mind to calm down. Eyes readjusting, she forced her head to stop shaking and her teeth to stop chattering at the slight against herself and the implied one against her division and the Gotei 13 as a whole, only to nearly reignite she saw the Quincy boy walking away, his white attire sticking out in the pallor light of the surrounding streetlamps. That bastard, she thought to herself, How dare he walk away just like that?
It took a considerable amount of effort to restrain her choicer words (no matter how angry she got, it was still forbidden to kill a human without a very good reason, and she had a feeling getting into a war of words with him would quickly escalate into something she would regret) and call out at him, “What is your name, Quincy boy?â€
The Quincy barely graced her with one last look before continuing to walk away, finally speaking out loud as he turned to move again, “You may call me the Hermit.†He had paid no attention to her calling him a mere boy.
Quietly, watching the Quincy who titled himself as Hermit walk away, she was startled again to realise his footsteps made no noise. Only the chirping of cicadas and the soft breeze pierced the silence of night.
She should report this to her Captain. He would be interested to hear about this so-called Last Quincy, and how he had taken it upon himself to purge Karakura Town of Hollow presence. The Gotei 13 did not like any other spiritually-aware entities stepping on their toes, and this was more like her stomping on her fellow 3rd Seat’s toes whenever he got out of hand. The Quincy could have been lying about his arrows purifying instead of exterminating Hollows. She really should direct this to somebody of higher authority, who would probably send the task off to investigation by the 2nd Division.
But natural curiosity won out, as she turned to walk in the direction opposite that the Quincy had gone, intent on finding the local supply outpost for Shinigami posted in the real world. She had a gigai to retrieve and a mystery to solve, and Kiyone Kotetsu would stop at nothing to unravel it.
---
Random notes
Before the revelation that this is Kiyone Kotetsu in the last paragraph, there are a total of two hints that this isn't Rukia. The more blatant is in the second-to-last paragraph when she talks about her 'fellow' 3rd seat. The second is the mention of her 'sister', but since Rukia has a sister as well and this is supposed to be heavily AU one would assume Hisana is perhaps still alive. The 13th division is mentioned once, and Ukitake is mentioned once, though not by name (and 'white-haired captain' could refer to 3 people).
Kiyone being here instead of Rukia is plot-relevant, not just a change made to deviate the plot from canon more.
Ishida isn't wearing glasses in this scene. Every time he pushes the bridge of his nose is a result of his habit of pushing his glasses up when he is wearing them
I'm taking the demi-Hollow thing from Don Kanonji's storyline and running with it.
No matter what Ishida says about jibakureis and being 'the' guardian of Karakura Town, don't take everything he says at face value. There is a reason he is goading Kiyone beyond his normally acerbic attitude towards Shinigami.
Suggestions?