Systematic Soul - Chapter 1.1 (Patreon)

His chest ached, his lungs struggling with every moment to exhale just a little bit of breath and then take it back in.

Tears blurred his eyes making his vision blurry. Granted, not that he would be able to see much of anything even if they weren't washing over his iris'. The thick black smoke cloying at his throat and swirling throughout the building in amongst red hot flames.

Fucking terrorists man.

It was sad, pathetic really. All he could do was sit here and moan and groan, dazed and waiting to die.

He'd love to escape if he could, but considering the large weighty pillar pinning him beneath it? Well, that wasn't likely and he was seriously up shit creek without a paddle.

Honestly, it was odd how calm he felt about all of this. But then, it wasn't like anybody would even miss him. He was just a no name orphan, no family, no friends, nobody that cared about at all, not even the orphanage matron.

'…Ah, this fucking sucks.' he groaned internally. The only joy he had in life was working out and anime, not really a pair of hobbies that went together, but hey, one inspired the other.

He had nothing really going for him, but anime had inspired him, made him realise that he didn't need to if he put the work in.

…To bad that wasn't going to amount to anything. Since some dramatic asshole had come to school this morning and decided to blow themselves up for whatever reason.

Probably being bullied, his life was that sad that he would get killed over a cliche like that.

God damnit, he didn't want to die. As pathetic as a reason it was, he hadn't finished watching his favourite anime, surely life couldn't be so cruel as to do him in before that?

He never got to see if Luffy became Pirate King, or if Natsu found his dad, if Ash became a champion finally, if Naruto would ever be able to fully control the Nine Tailed Fox or how Ichigo would save Orihime from Aizen and defeat him in the end.

…He was really looking forward to the Winter War and Ichigo facing off against Ulquiorra once again.

A flame boiled in his chest, not unlike the roaring embers threatening to swallow him whole and burn him alive.

He'd never had anything going for him his entire life and it, It wasn't FAIR!

                                              Do You Wish To Live?

Seriously, fuck this school.

A derisive snort left his lips, "Of course I want to live!" he spat, losing himself in the delusion for a moment.

His life was shit, but it was his shit life.

Just as he spoke, the crimson red words on the black screen shimmered and a different sentence appeared.

                                  Very Well, Prepare For Transmigration!

He blinked, "…What?" he uttered.

But that was all the time he had to say anything, because a split second later, the screen seemed to balloon in size and warp around him like an all consuming cocoon of red and black and then butterflies fluttered in his stomach as he felt himself falling.

He didn't even have time to be shocked at being swallowed by the thing or the trippy red and black darkness all around him, because a moment later, a life time of memories crashed into his mind, sweeping through and integrating deeply within his psyche.

                                               ______________________

Daiki Yurei, or rather Yurei Daiki awoke with a gasp, pushing himself up onto all fours and panting deeply.

He stared at grainy, pure white sand beneath him, his hands sunk deep into it.

"…What?" he panted deeply, eyes blinking rapidly a few times as he tried to focus.

His whisper echoed around himself, almost eerily, but he was too preoccupied to pay attention to that fact.

He lifted one of his hands to his chest and felt himself for any injures. His hand met bare skin, as expected, because his school shirt had been torn.

…When that massive ugly leather skinned beast with a bone mask appeared, huge clawed hand snatching him from the ground and pulling him into the air, stealing him from the alley he was walking through and into a deep, dark void.

That was when pain overwhelmed him, its massive claws puncturing his chest and darkness overtook him as a sense of coldness washed over his body.

Was…that what death felt like?

'A hollow.' something in his mind whispered to him, giving name to the creature.

Something clicked.

And Daiki began to remember things, things he should have no memory of.

Of another life.

Of another…him!

Of a boy just like him, an orphan, a nobody, worth nothing, caught in an explosion during schooling and waiting, pinned beneath a heavy pillar waiting to either asphyxiate from the smoke or be burnt alive by the flames, whatever came first.

And incredibly, beyond even having the memories of another teenager dying, was the fact that said teenager had memories of watching an 'anime' called Bleach among many others, following the life and times of…

Ichigo Kurosaki, orange haired substitute shinigami.

He had a classmate called Ichigo Kurosaki.

Who was also orange haired.

And was a dead ringer for the one within the memories he just gained, within that other life.

Not only him, but Orihime Inou, Uryuu Ishida…even Rukia Kuchiki the new transfer student who transferred in only a few days ago.

He had memories of all of them from that other life, all of them within Bleach.

It was perhaps a good thing he could focus on that, or else the rush of memories mingled together, would most likely overwhelmed him.

Which would have made the fact that his breaths were beginning to come out in rapid, panicked pants even worse.

'White sand….white sand…white sand.' those two words repeated over and over again within his head.

There was only one place he could think of that had white sand.

Almost mechanically, his head slowly turned on instinct and Daiki looked up at the sky.

To find a pitch black overcast meeting his gaze.

And a huge brightly glowing crescent moon smack dab in the middle of it, illuminating everything as far as he could see.

A landscape as far as his eyes could see, made up of pure white sand.

A hellish, blank desert.

"Hueco…Mundo." Daiki's voice trembled.

There was naught a sound around him, except for his own breathing.

It was eerie and terrifying.

Nothing at all he had went through in either life, had equipped him to deal with something like this!

It took more willpower than he would ever care to admit, just to stand up on his trembling fee, his head slowly turning from side to side as he tried to find some form of land marking.

….Or somewhere to hide.

"What the fuck is going on!?" Daiki smothered his fear, for the moment with rage.

….If he was grabbed up and pulled here by a hollow, where did it go? Shouldn't it have killed him already and devoured his soul?

He didn't even know how long he'd been blacked out for. Though it couldn't have been that long, or else some other hollow would probably have found him by now and eaten him.

Did another hollow catch it and kill it before it could? Did they kill each other during the fight?

Something really wasn't adding up here.

And even beyond the most pressing matter of where he was right now and the supreme amount of danger he was in, of literally not existing anymore never mind dying and going to the afterlife.

There was the whole Aizen thing, and him going to sacrifice all of Karakura Town to make some kind of key to go to the…Soul King?

Who was…God?

Or something like that.

The series hadn't gotten far enough for him to get all of the information and had ended right after Ichigo defeated Grimmjow.

What the fuck was he supposed to do with all that information he had? He couldn't exactly just bring it up to Ichigo or something. For one, he'd get called crazy or get looked at with suspicion and then if he ended up before the Soul Society, he might just end up on the dissecting table of that crazy clown captain Miyuri.

Fuck that.

Secondly….he was currently in Hueco Mundo and had no fucking idea how to get home to the town in the target sights of the meglomaniac with the god complex.

"Wait!" his eyes widened as he remembered something, "That box, was it not a delusion?"

His mind raced once more as he tried to make sense of it. "It looked almost like a status s-"

Just as he spoke, the air rippled with black light and before his very eyes, that familiar screen he saw at the end of that other boys life, appeared before him, crimson red text and all.

Yet, compared to what it was like before, asking questions about wanting to live, it was now wholly different.

                                                  Name: Daiki Yurei
                                           Race: Human/Fullbringer
                                                     Reiryoku: 124

It listed his name…race and Reiryoku? That was how they referred to how much spiritual power someone had right, and their Reiatsu, was their spiritual pressure…maybe?

…But-

"What the fuck is a Fullbringer?!" Daiki snarled, barely able to keep his voice low and not shout in case it brought a hollow running.

He'd never heard of anything like that in the series. He knew humans, Quincy, Shinigami, Hollow, Vizard, Arrancar and Bount.

But that was it, there was nothing at all called a Fullbringer.

'This thing really does just bring up more questions than answers.' Daiki resisted the urge to groan. It really did look like a status screen from some kind of game system.

But beyond listing his name, race(s?) and the amount of spiritual power he had, nothing else.

It didn't even give him a reference for where he stood in the amount of spiritual power he had. Was one hundred and twenty four good?

Absolutely useless!

Daiki brought his hands to his head and clasped it tightly, before taking a deep breath.

"…Right I need to move, I can't stay out here in the open." he mumbled to himself.

The eerie silence all around him was beginning to get to him and he could feel sweat begin to pool under his clothes.

Or at least what remained of his clothes.

…Maybe he'd get lucky and just freeze to death?

Oh wait, that wouldn't be very helpful either because then he'd just be a soul trapped in Hueco Mundo without any shinigami to help him pass on and get to the shit hole that was the Soul Society.

Daiki slapped his cheeks, "Man up." he scolded himself.

He was tough wasn't he? He hit up the gym regularly and even trained in kickboxing.

Granted not as many classes as he wanted because of being an orphan and all with limited funds.

But that wasn't the point, he was tough, strong and could take on anyone!

Hyping himself up, Daiki picked a random direction, or not so random, as he began walked in the direction he saw the moon facing him from.

                                                        __________________

Daiki didn't know how long he was walking. He didn't have his phone on him, he had forgotten it back home this morning, and his watch seemed to have gone missing as well, probably during the time when that hollow bastard snatched him up and gouged him to death while fleeing the scene like some demented cookie thief.

What he did know, was that it felt like forever.

Walking on sand itself hampered his walking speed massively, not to mention he was constantly keeping crouched and low, as out of sight as possible just in case any hollows passed by and slowing him down even further.

Luckily though, none did.

That wasn't to say no hollows were around though. He'd heard them a few times, off miles into the distance. Echoing roars, almost akin to that of dinosaurs from movies, except, instead seemed to sound like they were echoing through a hollow corridor

It was terrifying and Daiki, when he heard the first one and threw himself into the sand and literally dug his way down with his bare hands to cover his entire body and hide and lay there for a few minutes, trying to calm his racing heart.

Finally though, after what felt like dozens of hours, but was probably closer to just a single one than two, Daiki found his first change in scenery.

A sand dune rising up into a hill a good thirty feet or so high.

He power walked his way to it over the sand, and carefully crouched down and crawled up the sandy hill, peaking his head just over the top just in case any hollow were laying in wait at the bottom for some unsuspecting fool to prance over.

…He was glad to say, he saw none.

But he did see a tree.

A single, sad, lonely dead looking tree.

And as he peered ahead, he noted that the moon had become full somehow without him ever noticing, despite the fact his eyes had been on it and using it as a guiding light.

"…This place is fucking freaky." Daiki swallowed heavily, a tingle running down his spine.

Just then, movement flashed in the corner of his eye, coming from the bottom of the tree.

Daiki's head whipped towards it so fast he felt like he may get whiplash, and his whole body tensed, his veins filling with adrenaline as he prepared to sprint away.

But what burst out of the bottom of the tree was not some towering soul devouring monster out of a child's nightmare.

…But rather, a small reptile, no longer than his forearm, a lizard of some kind with brown scales and a tiny skull mask shot out and rushed away from the tree.

Daiki relaxed a bit, adrenaline beginning to fade, though in the rapid absence his body shook slightly.

It was the wrong move.

A split moment later, more movement flashed from the tree and from it another figure burst out.

Much larger than the little lizard, it was a huge spider with a leathery black body, large enough to reach his thighs if he was standing next to it.

Gleaming black eyes flashed behind a bond white mask that seemed to envelop much of its head and torso it spat a thick black glittering wet substance that shot through the air and spread out as it went, forming into a web and landed on the smaller lizard hollows tail.

It chittered in a panic as the larger spider hollow dug its eight creepy black legs into the sand and pulled, dragging the lizard back through the air, before twisting and jerking.

The lizard was thrown using the black web substance and slammed into the tree, hard.

An audible thump came from it and the tree shook.

Daiki winced in instinctive sympathy, a hit like that looked like it could kill a grown man if they were unlucky.

The little lizard hollow fell to the sandy ground with a chittering whimper.

                                                      ______________

Right, let's try this out. Also, I'll be working on Shinobi tomorrow.