Chapter 1
Brrrrrt Brrrrt Brrrrt!
THUD!
One bleary eye opened to stare at the red digital display of an alarm clock. It wouldn't take a master of reading facial expressions to know the individual glaring balefully at his alarm clock was not happy. Then again, what self-respecting teenager was HAPPY to wake up early to get ready for school?
Oh. Right. ALL OF THEM because he was living in Japan now.
Granted, he'd been living in Japan since his birth, but it still felt like he was an outsider, considering he'd lived an entire other life in America. He'd died in a car accident in his late forties and then awoken his past life's memories as a young child, only a few years old. Thankfully, his parents just thought he had an overactive imagination instead of taking him to a shrink whenever he'd talked about it.
With a little more maturity, he realized it was something to keep to himself. So, he hadn't mentioned it for years, though his parents still teased him sometimes.
None of that changed the fact that he had to get up and go to school now. Which was even more tedious because he'd done it all before. Granted, it was an American education, which was different from a Japanese one in several ways. However, he'd graduated from college and wasn't actually learning anything new, or that would be helpful in the workplace.
He especially hated school because he was planning to be a multimillionaire, possibly billionaire, by the time he was forty again. How? Future knowledge! He didn't have something like lottery numbers memorized or anything like that. No, he just knew a few things he could put to good use, like the rise of Crypto Currency, the goliath that Google would become, or even investing in Tesla and Space X.
He still had another few years before Bitcoin was even invented, which was perfect. Once he turned eighteen, he would get whatever job he could and save every last dime. Then, the very day that bitcoin was available, he would buy any whole coin he could get his hands on. Then he could start selling the coins later on whenever their value spiked above ten thousand USD. Much like lottery numbers, he didn't memorize the prices bitcoin sold for or when. What he did remember is that it wasn't until around 2020 or so that it really gained in value.
Buying one or two hundred thousand bitcoin shouldn't be that hard or expensive since they were considered worthless and more of a cool internet thing to do in the beginning. Long before it became something people spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up mining warehouses.
His goal was one hundred thousand bitcoin sold for no less than ten thousand USD each, adding up to one billion USD when all sold.
He sighed at the dream, something he thought of every day when his infernal alarm went off and woke him.
He climbed out of his bed and made his way to the bathroom in his apartment. He currently lived alone. His parents had moved abroad for his father's work. It was such a cliché that he'd entertained the idea that he was an anime protagonist when they'd first brought the idea up. In actuality, they hated the American education system and refused to let him move there because of it. So, they found a small apartment for him and left him behind. If he were a normal kid, he'd probably be upset about it. In reality, he was loving every moment of it.
Now, if only his parents hadn't made sure the teachers at school would snitch the second he skipped a class.
He took care of all his morning activities, including a healthy breakfast, before getting dressed in his school uniform. In all honesty, he liked the uniforms of Japan. He'd grown up poor in his last life and wore a lot of old hand-me-downs and did his new school year shopping at Goodwill.
Kids could be crueler than any adult.
Just as he got close to the door, a light knocking came from it. He sighed, knowing exactly who it was. So, he was obviously not surprised when he opened the door and found his neighbor standing in the doorway while wearing the female version of his school uniform. She was, in a word, gorgeous. Large soft brown eyes, burnt orange hair with short bangs framing her forehead, and a curvaceous body that didn't belong on a teenager.
She smiled brightly at him while he scowled back at her, “Good morning, Ara-chan!”
His scowl grew at the childish name she always called him by. No matter how many times he threatened or begged her to change it, she refused. Considering he was a member of the Delinquent Trio at his school, he was pretty scary to a lot of people. Yet Inoue Orihime continued to give him a blindingly bright smile.
“My name is Arashi. Use it properly!”
“Whatever you say Ara-chan! Now come on! We're going to be late!”
Putting action to words, she grabbed his hand and began pulling him away from his door. He had to move quickly to lock his place up properly before she could drag him away. If he hadn't moved fast enough, she would have dragged him away even if it left his apartment door wide open. As much as he threatened her, the truth was he'd never lay a finger on Orihime.
His massive unrequited crush might have something to do with that. Unfortunately for him, she was far more interested in another member of the Delinquent Trio.
She wasn't holding his hand and walking with him to school because they were dating; she was doing it because his sense of direction was complete garbage. Ever since he was a kid, he had the amazing ability to get lost in even the easiest-to-navigate places. His skill at getting lost was Roronoa Zoro's level of bad. He'd lived in the same house on the same street for almost all of his life, before moving to his apartment, and he'd gotten lost on that street at least a hundred times.
So, to his great embarrassment, his parents had asked his cute new neighbor to walk him to school every day to make sure he didn't get lost on the way. He refused to acknowledge that his parents were probably right to do so.
Eventually, Orihime stopped pulling him along, and they walked side-by-side hand-in-hand. Plenty of people thought they were a couple. A good-looking couple, too. He was taller than Orihime; he was the third tallest in school, with only the other two delinquents in the trio being taller. His height, well-kept physique, naturally spikey black hair, and dark eyes contrasted with the short, curvy, and bright Orihime nicely.
So long as he kept a fake smile on his face, people gave them happy looks and thought them cute. The moment he stopped his fake smile, things changed. If he were a woman, he'd have an extreme case of Resting Bitch Face, though, since he was male, it was more 'Resting Asshole Face.' When he stopped smiling and just let his face relax, he looked like he was a single step away from murdering someone if they said just one wrong thing.
His extreme case of RAF is what led to him becoming a member of the Delinquent Trio. Assholes just assumed he was picking a fight with them because they were assholes who picked fights with people who looked at them funny. Obviously, he wasn't just going to sit there and take a beating from some little shithead, so he did the American thing.
There was no kill like overkill.
The only person who had never been afraid of him when seeing his Resting Asshole Face had been Orihime. He'd instantly asked her out, and she'd declined. It was only later that he realized she had a crush on Ichigo. It figured that she had a crush on the only other orange-haired kid in the school. He wanted to be pissed at Ichigo for it, but the dude was a true bro, and they ended up fighting side by side against actual delinquents more often than not.
All in all... High School drama at its best. He genuinely smiled at the thought while letting Orihime guide him to their shared classroom. Only then did she let his hand go so she could go spend time with her friends before classes began. He decided to do the same and walked over to where Ichigo was sitting. As he got close, the other teen gave him a small smirk, “Still no luck with our class princess?”
He scowled, “You know she's only got eyes for you, Strawberry.”
Now it was Ichigo's turn to scowl, which made Arashi smile in return. Ichigo stared at him with his brown eyes, “I hate it when you call me that.”
Arashi smirked, “I notice you didn't say anything about Orihime's crush on you.”
Ichigo's scowl grew while he looked away from Arashi, “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
Arashi chuckled but didn't push. He had no idea why Ichigo wasn't thrilled at the idea of Orihime being interested in him, but there it was. He spent some more time talking to his friend before classes for the day began. He settled in and sighed. It would be another long and boring day of school.
-----Line Break-----
Arashi sighed as he looked left, then right, while standing at an empty intersection in his neighborhood. He'd forgotten that his fridge was empty and hadn't stopped to get some groceries with Orihime after school. Naturally, he only remembered when he opened his fridge and found it bereft of anything edible for dinner.
Thankfully, in Japan, convenience stores really were convenient. So, he'd grabbed his keys and made his way to the nearest one... He refused to acknowledge that the ten-minute walk had taken forty minutes. Now... Well, he was pretty certain his apartment complex was to the left... or was it the right?
…
Shit.
A loud clattering of metal hitting the ground had him looking to his left again. An empty trash can had been knocked over. Only... there was no one there, and there hadn't been a gust of wind. He frowned and stared at it, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. There was something... Something... Wrong.
He shook the feeling off and refocused on his pressing problem, finding his way home.
A shadow shifted in the corner of his eye, causing his head to snap back to the left. Wide-eyed and heart hammering, he stared, trying to see what had caught his attention. There was definitely something there...
THERE!
He couldn't see what it was, but it looked like... heat haze on a hot street. Only it was night, and the temperature was comfortable. But it was there... He stared at it, refusing to unsee it, until it moved.
“Oh fuck no. I've seen this movie.”
He immediately turned in the opposite direction and started running down the street that had been his right turn. As soon as he did, he felt it. Something heavy hit the ground behind him. If he were less genre savvy, he might have turned to take a look and seen whatever horror was behind him. But he wasn't stupid. Instead of looking, he poured more effort into running even faster. Whatever was down that street, he wanted NOTHING to do with it.
He ran faster and took the first right turn he came across, less than a block later. He didn't stop to catch his breath, he didn't look over his shoulder, he kept running full speed. Seconds later, he heard the sound of concrete breaking, metal bending, and glass shattering as whatever it was hit the corner of the building he'd turned at.
The loud sound just proved his internal thought process was correct! If he'd thought he'd escaped and stopped to recover, he'd have been caught!
When he came to the mouth of the alley he'd run into, he turned right again and began running back in the direction he'd originally come from, just on the next street over. Circling around and getting behind the pursuer and then running away was much smarter than running away in a straight line!
Unfortunately, whatever thing was chasing him proved itself to not be entirely unintelligent as it turned to follow him. It's heavy, invisible, mass once more scraping the corner of the building, breaking it apart. Arashi scowled as he put his maximum effort into running as fast as he could. He could feel the heavy thump of whatever was chasing him through the concrete beneath his feet, getting closer.
Moments before he arrived at the next corner, something heavy slammed into his back. He flew through the air, dazed from the impact, until he slammed into the middle of the street with a loud grunt of pain. He flopped onto his back, dazed, his vision blurry and his entire body aching from the hard impact. In a weird, detached sort of way, he was pretty sure some of his ribs were heavily bruised, if not broken, judging by the pain radiating from his chest.
He panted, gasping for breath, every inhale and exhale sending searing pain through him. He stared up, watching the sky twist and morph through the invisible thing that was now standing above him. His hair ruffled as the thing breathed on him, its mouth must have been massive!
Was... was it going to fucking EAT him?!
Arashi stared in horror as the shimmering field around the thing above him slowly began to fade. Standing above him was an absolute monster from his worst nightmares. It was humanoid, as in two arms and two legs, but it stood like a gorilla with its front arms acting as a pair of pseudo legs. It was also absolutely massive. It would have towered over Arashi by at least a meter, if not more, even if Arashi had been standing. Lying on the ground looking up at it just made it feel all the more massive.
The worst part was its head. A massive white thing that looked like solid bone in the shape of a warped, grinning skull with twisted spikes coming out of the sides of it. Hollow, empty eyes stared down at Arashi while its mouth opened, revealing a second, smaller mouth within its gaping maw.
Arashi wanted to nope right the fuck out right then, but he couldn't move. His breathing turned ragged while more adrenaline flooded his body at the sight of it rearing its head back just to launch it forward toward Arashi's head. Arashi slammed his eyes closed, not wanting to see his second death coming.
…
Nothing happened.
Tentatively, he opened his eyes. He nearly screamed at the sight of the open mouths inches away from literally biting his head off. His entire head was literally within the beast's mouth. Its teeth were only centimeters away from taking his head off in a single bite. With a whimper, Arashi tried to move away from the frozen beast, but found he could only move his head. Everything from his neck down was frozen in place.
Only after struggling to move for at least a few minutes did he notice the other thing in the mouth with him. A floating screen with words written on it.
“Holy shit! Am I really a goddamn isekai protagonist with a system?!”
He quickly focused on the screen and read.
[Loading Complete! Chaos Gacha System Online! Welcome, new user!]
[Resuming character creation process!]
[Curses already rolled and pre-initialized!]
[Current available Gacha Tickets: 1x Platinum, 2x Gold, 3x Advantage Gold.]
[Please state, or think, to roll a ticket! Once all tickets are rolled, reality will resume.]
Arashi read and reread the screen several times. Okay, so it wasn't an RPG system that would make him into a god with some effort and grinding. Disappointing. On the other hand, a gacha system meant he only needed a single awesome roll to turn himself into a god. So... time to become a gambling addict?
That needed to wait, though. He currently had five tickets, that was five chances to get something that could save his life and get him out of his current predicament.
“Roll the platinum ticket.”
[ROLLING!]
[Metal Manipulation, Elite Ability, MHA - Allows you to control the shape and form of all metals you are in contact with.]
He stared at the result. That... was one hell of an ability. And now that he'd rolled his first ability, he suddenly understood how they worked. When an ability was equipped, he could use it at will, but there were limitations. First, he could currently equip only a single ability. For every five abilities he had in total, he would get one more ability slot. So he needed four more abilities to be able to equip two. Second, he could swap abilities at any time, but then the swap option would go on a five-minute cooldown. Which wasn't terrible, honestly.
[First Curse discovered!]
[Slow Slots, Medium Curse, Your ability cooldowns have gone from a 5-minute cooldown to a 1-hour cooldown. Once you swap an ability slot, you must wait at least 1 hour to change that ability slot again. Resolve: Acquire at least 5 speed boosting abilities, items, or traits.]
Or it was an hour cooldown. Less convenient, but still not horrible.
“Roll the normal gold tickets.”
[ROLLING!]
[Unbreakable Blade, Rare Item, A simple, sharp steel longsword that is completely unbreakable and undamagable.]
[Regeneration, Rare Ability, Gives you a healing factor, your wounds close at speeds visible to the naked eye, and some wounds you sustain mid-fight may even close by the time the fight ends. You most likely won't die from any non-lethal wounds as long as you have energy. You can further speed up healing by expending energy.]
[Due to the world setting, Unbreakable Blade automatically modified to Unbreakable Asauchi.]
[Unbreakable Asauchi, Rare Item, Bleach – An Unbreakable Blade modified to fit into the Bleach setting. An Asauchi is a Zanpakuto, a spiritual armament in the form of a weapon that befits its user. The strength of this armament scales with the power of its user. The Asauchi is a dormant, unnamed Zanpakuto that grows along with the user. If the user is able to unlock the Shikai of the blade, it will attain its own unique ability according to the nature of its user, equal to or weaker in power than a rare rank ability. And if they are able to unlock its Bankai, that ability will be upgraded to equal an Epic rank ability.]
He immediately swapped out Metal Control for Regeneration. He wasn't quite Wolverine, but it would help a fuck ton with his current injuries... Once time resumed, it went to work on them, anyway.
“Roll one Advantage Gold ticket.”
[ROLLING!]
[Please choose one!]
[Slipper, Common Ability, Your skin is really slippery, like it's made of ice covered in oil. Anyone trying to grab your body will be really annoyed.
-OR-
Conjure Lesser Air Elemental, Rare Ability, Allows you to conjure or summon Lesser Air and Sky Elementals out of your energy and command them, such as Wind Sprites, Living Clouds, Wind Elementals etc., that can use a variety of air and sky-based magic or other similar effects. You can only conjure elementals that are equal to or lesser in power than a Uncommon Familiar. The power, shape and ability of the elemental you can conjure depends on your own expertise and power level. The conjured Elemental will draw power from you to maintain itself and use its abilities. The stronger the Elemental, the more energy they will need from you to sustain themselves. If you stop supplying them with energy, they will vanish. If you spend enough time, energy and have the proper skills, you can create permanent elementals who do not rely on you for energy. Elementals are not counted as Familiars by the system.]
Well, neither was fantastic, in his opinion, but one was obviously better than the other, “Lesser Air Elemental. Roll the next Advantage Gold ticket.”
[ROLLING!]
[Please choose one!]
[Adhesion, Common Ability, You can turn your skin incredibly sticky, sticky enough that you could stick to walls or prevent ordinary people from pulling away from you. You do not feel the difference and can control which parts are sticky.
-OR-
Wind Edge, Uncommon Ability, Allows you to cloak any item you are holding with razor-sharp winds to enhance its cutting ability while also allowing you to launch the cloak any time as a projectile to extend the cutting effect.]
Another obvious choice, “Wind Edge.”
It would work well with his sword... once he could equip two abilities because there was no way in hell he was removing Regeneration anytime soon!
“Roll the last ticket.”
[ROLLING!]
[Please choose one!]
[Death Perception, Uncommon Item, Call of Duty - "You can't escape death" Upon drinking Death Perception, you will be granted temporary reaper's gaze, allowing you to see the outlines of enemies through walls and through any obstruction for 1 hour. Effects apply after finishing an entire can and do not stack by drinking more than 1 can. Warning: Drinking more than 3 different buff drinks at once will cause intense haemorrhaging, strokes, and heart attacks. Restock Timer: 24 Hours
-OR-
Battle Growth, Epic Ability, You are an eternal engine for battle, you grow in power every time you fight. The harder a battle is, the stronger and faster you grow in the middle of it, allowing you to adapt and surpass your opponent. This growth is permanent.]
“Oh gee, I wonder which one I should pick. It's not like one of them would not only come in extremely handy since it looks like I'm about to fight for my life, but it would also let me equip two abilities at once. Fucking Battle Growth of course!”
[Initialization complete! Resuming real-world modeling in 3...]
“Oh shit.”
[2...]
Arashi quickly thought about what he was going to do, not that he had many options with the things mouth about to close on his neck. He prepared himself by first choosing Battle Growth as his second ability. Between it and regeneration, he just might live long enough to either kill or escape the thing trying to eat him.
[1!]
There was a metaphysical lurch as the world suddenly resumed moving. Arashi wasted no time at all in summoning his Unbreakable Asauchi. He was only very slightly surprised to see that the sword was in the shape of a plain katana. That surprise was only because the original Unbreakable Blade was labeled as a longsword.
He shoved the sword into the thing's mouth so the tip of the blade was aimed right at the roof of its mouth. The monster continued to bite until the blade pierced its skin. It let out a shriek and quickly backed off.
At the same time, Arashi could feel his Regeneration kicking in and making his every breath less and less painful. It would probably only take a few minutes for all of his wounds to heal. He didn't have that kind of time to waste just sitting around recovering. The big black beast was now eyeing him carefully, but with no less desire to chomp on him.
Arashi painfully forced himself to his feet while never letting go of the sword in his hands. Once standing, he held it out in front of himself, brandishing it more like a stick than the blade it actually was, “Come one step closer, and I'll cut you to ribbons!”
The beast seemed to understand him as it let out a distinct roar of defiance and immediately charged. Arashi scowled and muttered to himself, “Should have kept your trap shut, moron.”
Seeing the beast move, he knew he couldn't outrun it, but maybe if he cut up its arms and legs enough, it would leave him alone? He didn't fucking know how to fight monsters! With no clue what he was doing and filled with enough adrenaline to power New York City for a week, he recklessly charged at the beast!
The beast looked confused by the sudden change, but Arashi didn't know how to take advantage of that. His knowledge of fighting came from street scuffles and Mortal Kombat. Neither included tutorials on killing grotesque gorilla-like monsters. So, he did what he expected anyone else in a similar situation would do.
Blindly flail around with the sword and hope to get lucky.
His arms shuddered when the blade made contact with the monster's thick forearm. The blade barely sliced into the skin, but the monster pulled back as if the blade had burned him. For all Arashi knew, the blade had.
He stopped flailing the sword around to catch his breath. The sword didn't weigh much, and he was in pretty good shape, but he was not used to this kind of activity in the least. Thankfully, his Regeneration seemed to be doing a great job of keeping too much lactic acid from building up in his muscles. He'd seriously need to hit the gym and see how well his new ability would work when it came to building muscle.
He was brought out of his musing by the roar of the monster. Right, fight to the death against a monster, can't forget that.
“Cut its mask to kill it, kid.”
Arashi jerked to a stop and looked around in shock at hearing a deeply masculine voice calling out possibly life-saving advice. Only, he didn't see anyone on the street. There was just a black cat looking at him with bright, eerily intelligent golden eyes. As he looked at the small animal, it opened its mouth, and the man's voice came again, “Better pay attention, kid.”
Arashi's mouth dropped open in abject shock at the sight of the talking animal. Was he in some sort of magical girl world with talking animal sidekicks?! Was he fighting some sort of evil monster meant to be dealt with by said magical girls?! Oh Jesus, was he the guy who was meant to be the first victim that brought the girls together?!
The scream of the monster brought him out of his horrifying thoughts just in time to see one of its massive fists coming directly at him. He oddly had the presence of mind to notice the fist was almost as big as his body while bringing up his sword in the pitiful hopes of blocking the blow.
The good news was that he did catch the blow on the edge of the blade and sliced several of the creature's fingers clean off. The bad news was that he had no hope in hell of stopping the momentum of the massive fist. It slammed into him with the force of a truck and sent his body ragdolling through the air.
His body once more slammed into the pavement and sent sheer agony through his being. This time, he was sure at least a few of his bones were broken. His Regeneration kept him alive and was already hard at work trying to heal the new damage, but it wasn't nearly enough all on its own.
He saw the beast cradling its mutilated hand while glaring at him with more hate than Arashi could comprehend. It let out another scream and charged toward him once again. Arashi huffed, ignored the blood dripping into his eye, and focused on forcing himself back to his feet. He managed to get his feet under him moments before the beast was upon him once more.
Arashi screamed at the beast in defiance while grabbing his sword in both hands and swinging it with all the strength he could muster. The beast attacked back by punching out with its left, un-mutilated, fist. Just like the last time the blade sliced into the beast, only this time the result was different. Arashi's blade sliced through the monster's fist like a hot knife through butter. All of its fingers and its thumb went flying into the air.
The beast failed to hit him this time. It pulled back while screaming its pain for all the world to hear.
That... had been a lot easier than the last time.
Arashi's eyes widened. Battle Growth. He was in combat, and he was getting stronger. It didn't feel like it. There was no sudden rush of power or energy. Frankly, he still had doubts that it was doing anything. Then again, he did just slice clean through the monster when his first cut had barely scratched it.
This time, it was Arashi who charged the beast. He raised the sword over his head and executed a clumsy downward slash at the beast's chest. Not wanting to get gutted, the beast used its less damaged arm to block the attack. It worked, sort of. The Asauchi in Arashi's hand cleaved completely through the beast's arm, slicing it off cleanly just below the elbow.
While the beast screamed in pain, Arashi was hyper-focused on his next target. He ran in closer and lashed out with a horizontal slice that cleaved through one of the monster's back legs. Its scream this time was filled with more than pain; there was fear in it.
There was no hesitation in Arashi's steps while he ran around the collapsed beast and made directly for its head, unconsciously following the advice of the weird talking cat. He saw the empty voids in the mask where its eyes should have been turn toward him as he approached at a dead run. He would have sworn he saw resignation there just moments before he slashed down with his sword again and cleaved the mask in half horizontally.
There was a beat of silence, a moment of stillness like the world holding its breath, then the monster began to dissolve away. Arashi watched until the monster had completely dissolved and vanished. Once it had, the Asauchi dropped from his suddenly numb fingers. Wounds that his Regeneration was still trying to repair became his focus. His entire body hurt from the tips of his hair to the nails on his toes.
The Asauchi was swiftly followed to the ground by an unconscious Arashi. The last thing his barely conscious mind registered was the deep male voice saying, “Not bad, kid.”
-----Line Break-----
Arashi sat up with a jolt. Consciousness came with a flood of adrenaline. His head snapped from side to side to take in every detail of the room he was in. A room that was most assuredly not his room in his apartment. He was in a small room that looked very traditional with tatami floors, wooden sliding doors, and paper windows.
“Good, you're awake.”
His eyes snapped toward the voice, which was low to the ground. He beheld the same cat from the night before. Black with far too intelligent golden eyes that had the hair on the back of his neck standing up. He stared directly at the cat while asking, “What the hell are you?”
The cat sat relaxed and seemed unconcerned, though it opened its muzzle to say, “I should be asking you that. Some random human suddenly spawns an Asauchi into the living world and uses it to kill a Hollow. Then it turns out that the same human has a healing factor unlike anything humans are known to have.” The golden eyes of the cat narrowed and seemed to be burrowing into his soul as it finished, “And none of that compares to the fact you visibly grew stronger as you fought that Hollow.”
He swallowed and asked the first thing that came to mind to try and get past the nervousness the feline was invoking in him, “What's a Hollow?”
The cat studied him for a few silent moments before its whole attitude seemed to change, and it casually answered his question, “A Hollow is a human soul that stayed in the mortal realm too long after its death.”
Arashi shuddered, “That thing was a human soul?”
The cat rolled its shoulders in a way that made it appear to shrug, “At one point, it was. When you killed it, it didn't actually die. Your final blow purified it and sent it on to the afterlife, where it belonged.”
He let out a sigh at that information. He didn't regret killing it to keep himself alive, but the thought that he might have destroyed a soul... He didn't know how to describe how he felt about that other than 'not good.'
The cat stood up and walked past him toward a wall where he noticed an open window letting in fresh air. Its tail flicked in the air while it addressed him, “The others are waiting in the dining room, so's breakfast.”
“Others?”
But the cat didn't answer and jumped out the window. Arashi frowned at that but couldn't say anything. He pushed the remainder of the blankets off and climbed out of the bed. Only then did he notice he'd been sleeping in a simple light blue yukata. He looked around, but didn't see the clothing he'd been wearing anywhere in the room. With little other choice, he left the room in the yukata, his bare feet padding along the springy flooring.
Stepping out of his room presented him with only one direction to go, as the other direction ended in a wall. A short walk and he found himself in a dining room filled with strangers.
The first one to catch his attention was a giant of a man who towered over all the others, even though they were all sitting. He had to be at least two meters (200cm) tall to pull that off! That was huge even by the standards of America, let alone Japan, where the average height was closer to one hundred and seventy centimeters. The dude might've even been taller than Chad, the third Delinquent in their Trio. On top of his height, his hair was braided in a cornrow style that ended in long braids. He was rocking a killer mustache and a pair of rectangular-framed glasses.
The next tallest person in the group looked closer to normal, but still taller than the average Japanese person. He had pale blonde hair, gray eyes, and was wearing a white and green striped bucket hat that kept his eyes shadowed.
The last three looked like a trio of kids. The only boy among them had bright red hair, actually red, not the orange 'red' that Ichigo and Orihime sported. Other than that, he just looked like a normal kid. Sitting next to him was a cute younger girl with her dark hair in pigtails, large purple eyes, and a blush on her cheeks. Her eye color was a bit unusual, but it wasn't the first time he'd seen something like it in his new life.
The last person at the table was also the one staring at him the hardest. She was also the only other person wearing a yukata like his, though hers was pure white. She had black hair and purple eyes, much like the other girl. It made him wonder if she was the older sister of the first girl because she was definitely older, even if her short height and petite body tried to hide her maturity.
After staring at him for a long moment, she turned to look at the guy in the bucket hat, “So, this is the other anomaly from last night?”
The man nodded, then addressed Arashi, “Come, sit down, have some breakfast, you must be starving after last night's events.”
Arashi opened his mouth to ask what the hell was going on, but his stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly. He placed a hand on his stomach and grimaced. It felt like his stomach was trying to dissolve his spine for nourishment, “Yeah, I think I should.”
He took the only empty seat, which put the elder sister on his right side. The table was filled with traditional Japanese breakfast foods. It'd taken him a while to get used to what Japan considered a normal breakfast, but he wouldn't change it for the world these days. He quickly filled his plate and dug in.
While he ate, the man in the bucket hat began speaking, “I suppose we should start with introductions. My name is Urahara Kisuke. The gentleman beside me is Tsukabishi Tessai.” He gestured to the red-headed boy, “This young man is Hanakari Jinta.” He pointed to the young girl, “Tsumugiya Ururu.” And finally, he gestured to the young woman on his right, “And Kuchiki Rukia, a guest here much like yourself.”
“What about me?” came a familiar deep male voice.
The man in the bucket hat, Kisuke, chuckled and gestured to the cat, “Of course, I can't forget Yoruichi.”
Arashi swallowed the well-cooked and seasoned fish in his mouth before introducing himself, “Ranmaru Arashi, just call me Arashi.”
Kisuke nodded, “As you wish, Arashi. You're currently in my humble candy store. Yoruichi brought you here last night.”
Arashi paused in his eating to look at the lounging cat, then back at Kisuke with a clearly disbelieving look. The man didn't bother trying to explain. Instead, he moved on, “Yoruichi informed us of what happened to you last night. Terrible luck to be attacked by a Hollow like that. It's very rare for them to be even remotely interested in normal humans.” Kisuke's gaze focused on Arashi like a laser, “Then again, you're not a normal human, are you?”
Arashi paused with his chopsticks full of white rice about to go into his mouth. He frowned at Kisuke, clearly confused, “What are you talking about? Of course, I'm a human. What else could I be?”
Kisuke raised an eyebrow and answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, “Why, a shinigami, of course.”
Arashi stared at Kisuke for a long, silent moment before he snorted, loudly, “Yeah. Right. I'm a god of death responsible for ferrying souls to the afterlife. Because that makes so much more sense than me being a normal teenager...” He paused, “Or at least as normal as a monster fighting teenager who pulls swords out of nowhere can be anyway.”
Yeah, that might not have gone quite the way he wanted it to. However, the whole supernatural thing was brand new to him, so he could be forgiven for forgetting he wasn't just a normal... Godammit. He'd never been normal. What normal teen had memories of an entire other life in a whole different country?
The girl next to him, Rukia, he recalled, scowled deeply and spoke in an acidic tone, “There's no point in lying. How else could you have gotten that sword?!” She pointed at a specific corner of the room where a familiar blade was calmly resting, “That's an Asauchi, and those are only issued to Shinigami! What squad are you with?! Are you a deserter?!” She paused, frowned, and asked in a somewhat softer tone, “Did a member of the Kuchiki Clan send you here to watch me?”
Arashi stared at Rukia in clear blank incomprehension, then slowly stated, “I know what those words mean, but what you said made no sense.”
“Ma ma, calm down, Rukia. It would be a shame if you burst a blood vessel in that brand new Gigai.”
The hell was a Gigai? Arashi wanted to ask, but he was already confused enough. These people made zero sense, and it was beginning to bug him. He set down his chopsticks, his food already gone anyway, and slowly stood up, “Look, I don't know what's going on, and I'm not sure I want to know. I truly appreciate you taking a stranger like me in and making sure I was okay after last night. Give me something with your address on it, and I'd be happy to reimburse you for the meal. For now, I would just appreciate my clothes and something I can hide the sword in so I can go home. I'm pretty sure school for today is already a wash.”
Kisuke sighed, “I'm afraid that's not possible, not until we understand the situation at hand. And for that...”
There was a beat of silence before the man in the striped bucket hat moved faster than anyone Arashi had ever seen. In a split second, the tip of a cane he hadn't even known was there slammed into his forehead and sent him flying ass over teakettle until his back slammed into a wall. He scowled and jumped to his feet, feeling surprisingly fine despite his tumble, “Hey! What the hell was that for ass... hole?”
He stared, gobsmacked, at the sight of his body sitting slumped over in the chair he'd just been in while a long, thick chain connected from his chest to said body. He stared back and forth before asking the obvious, “What the hell?!”
Kisuke calmly stood up and walked around the table to pick up the chain from the floor. The man gave the chain a tug, causing Arashi to hiss in pain at the feeling of the plate that was suddenly on his chest being jerked around like that, “What the fuck man?!”
Kisuke hummed to himself and dropped the chain, “Huh, so, not a gigai. Unexpected.” His gaze focused firmly on Arashi in a way that sent a shiver down the teen's spine, “That begs the question, where did you get the Asauchi from? It's clearly yours, the Reiryoku resonance between you two cannot be faked. At least, not easily.”
His gaze finally left Arashi, causing the teen to sag in relief, and focused on Yoruichi, “You're sure the Asauchi just appeared out of nowhere?”
The cat nodded his head, “I'm certain. The boy had a very weak spiritual sense, barely enough to perceive a hint of the Hollow. Likely more due to good instincts than any level of spiritual power. That changed after he ran. By the time the Hollow caught up and knocked him down, the kid could see it. I was going to jump in and purify the Hollow before it could eat the kid, but just before I could move, he suddenly had the Asauchi. One second, there was nothing; the next, he had it in hand.”
“And then he beat the Hollow...” Kisuke narrowed his eyes at Yoruichi, “And you didn't help with that in any way?”
Yoruichi froze for a moment before reluctantly revealing, “Well... I may have scratched it a little to slow it down so it wouldn't outright kill the kid...”
He'd put in all that effort, and he still needed help to take down the monster? How strong were they?! … How weak was he?
Kisuke hummed and once more eyed the chain connecting Arashi's soul to his living body, “Hmmmm. Curious.” He waved his hand dismissively, “Alright, you can get back in your body now.”
Arashi stared at his unconscious body, then back at Kisuke, “How? Am I supposed ot climb in its mouth or something? Because there's no way in hell I'm going in from the other direction!”
Rukia scowled at him, “That's crude and disgusting! Just wrap your arms around your body, you cretin.”
Arashi scowled at Rukia. She'd had a bad attitude toward him since they met. He paused as he realized that was a familiar feeling. Almost everyone was, the first time they met him.
[Curse discovered!]
[Menacing, Medium Curse, Whether you intend to or not, you generally come across as a very intimidating and scary individual, like a thug or a criminal. Most regular people would rather not be close to you, and trained people may be on guard against you at first meeting. Resolve: Acquire Adept level communication or above OR acquire a trait that contradicts your curse.]
Great, so he'd literally been cursed since birth to look like an asshole and put people off. Just fucking great.
“What was that?”
Arashi looked at Kisuke with concern. Had he seen the Gacha screen? Oh shit! Could they all see it when he was outside of his body?! He swallowed but decided to play dumb until he knew better, “What was what?”
“The invisible thing only you could see and read. You stopped paying attention to Rukia and focused on something only you could see. Something you needed to read, and whatever it was, annoyed you greatly. And now, now you're scared and trying to hide whatever it is.”
Arashi stared at Kisuke in abject horror. Was he in the room with some Japanese Sherlock Holmes?! Talking about his gacha system and reincarnation seemed like a terrible idea to Arashi. At the same time, he had no idea what to say to the man who'd just read him like a book.
“Just... It's nothing, alright? I just want to go home. Where are my clothes?”
Kisuke studied him for a little longer before turning to look at Tessai, “Get his clothing, please.” His gaze turned back to Arashi, “You should return to your body if you plan to leave.”
Arashi didn't argue at all and quickly hugged himself. It felt super weird to be hugging his body one moment, then opening his eyes the next. He quickly checked his chest and found a complete lack of chain sticking out of it.
It was only a few moments later that Tessai returned with Arashi's clothing bundled up in his arms. Arashi quickly took the clothing and left the room to get changed. Once he was out of earshot, Rukia spoke up, “You can't seriously be letting him just leave. He's so suspicious!”
Kisuke pulled out a stripped fan and snapped it open to hide the wide smirk he had, “It's fine, he lives relatively close and isn't going anywhere. You'll be able to keep an eye on him at his school.” His eyes shifted to Yoruichi, “I want you to keep an eye on him as well. There is definitely something up with him, and I want to know what it is. Somehow obtaining and bonding with an Asauchi? His regenerative ability. Not to mention your description of how he grew stronger fighting that Hollow, we need to know more. A lot more.”
Yoruichi sighed but nodded in acceptance, “I was going to watch him anyway. He seems interesting. His first encounter with a Hollow, and he acted in a rather surprising manner.”
Yoruichi wouldn't say it out loud, but she found Arashi's awakening a lot more impressive than the Kurosaki kid's. That boy had the lineage and disguised training from Isshin to help him out. Not to mention the other things Kisuke suspected might be lurking in the boy's blood.
Arashi, on the other hand, truly was a normal boy with no advantages to his name. Yet, somehow, he'd sensed the Hollow, acted in a rather appropriate manner by running away, and then fought for his life when running was no longer an option. Oh, there was no grace, no sign of hidden talent or skill, just raw tenacity. Yoruichi could appreciate that quite a bit.
Arashi also looked like he would be a lot of fun to tease if his flustered reaction to Kisuke questioning him was anything to go by. Yes, spying on him would be no great hardship.
-----Line Break-----
Arashi closed the door to his apartment with a sigh of relief. He was finally, mercifully, alone. His gaze moved to the corner of his vision, where a small icon that looked like an envelope was sitting. It had been there since he had woken up, but he hadn't noticed it until he was halfway home. Even then, he hadn't focused on it since he was in public, and who knew what would happen if he focused too hard on it.
The last thing he needed was for something weird to happen, like his hair turning into fire or something, while walking down a busy public road. Now he focused on it to see what would happen.
[Archived Messages]
[Feat Achieved! Survive your first encounter with a Hollow! +1 Bronze Gacha Ticket.]
[Feat Achieved! Defeat your first Hollow! +1 Bronze Gacha Ticket.]
[Feat Achieved! Gain the undivided attention of Urahara Kisuke! +1 Silver Gacha Ticket.]
[Feat Achieved! Survive Urahaha Kisuke's undivided attention! +1 Gold Gacha Ticket.]
[Feat Achieved! Gain the attention of Shihoin Yoruichi! +1 Silver Gacha Ticket.]
He stared at the scrolling list of feats in shock. Should tickets for his gacha really be that easy to come across? Granted, only one of them was gold rank, which was the third lowest rank out of eight rankings. The knowledge he had of the gacha still confused him. He just knew things about it without ever having been told or needing it to be explained.
Well, there was no time like the present, “Roll the bronze tickets.”
[ROLLING!]
[Bloom Stone, Rare Item, Calamity Mod - An ancient relic made out of a special green gem fitted into a necklace, under sunlight it gives its user regeneration depending on the time of day, in the morning its Uncommon Regeneration, at Noon it is Rare Regeneration, in the afternoon Uncommon, and at evening it is Common; it gives no benefits at night.]
[Pocket Sand, Trash Ability, Conjure and launch a handful of sand from your hands. Shouting "pocket sand!" as you do so might make it stronger.]
He looked at the results and then snorted. At least the necklace would be useful, even if only during the day. Or at least it would be if it stacked with his current rare Regeneration ability. If it didn't... he'd have to give it to Orihime. That girl was a mega clutz, and at least with the necklace she would heal her bumps and bruises during the day.
“Roll the silver tickets.”
[ROLLING!]
[Pugilist Apprentice, Rare Trait, You are a Pugilist who has just embarked on their path. You learn and train Martial Skills faster, and your natural intuition for combat and martial arts is heightened.]
[Void Tendril, Rare Ability, Allows you to conjure and control tendrils woven from void, these tendrils can grapple, crush, whip, and pierce to your desires. You can also share sensations with the tentacles.]
Arashi grinned at the first roll. The trait would be really helpful going forward. He had a sword now, and using a sword was a Martial Art, so the trait should help him learn how to use it faster, right? Anything that could help him survive long enough to grow too strong to fuck with was welcome.
His second roll though... Well, he did live in Japan and tentacles were a part of his culture, so...
Moving on.
“Roll the gold ticket.”
[ROLLING!]
[Expert Hand-to-Hand Combat, Elite Skill, You are an expert martial artist, you move your body like it is a lethal weapon, knowing where to strike and how to move your body to deal damage with expert skill. You learn and master other types of unarmed martial arts much faster.]
“Oh, well fuck.”
Well, like he'd just thought, that last roll was very welcome indeed. He'd been an alright fighter before the rolls, even if it was just limited to simple street brawls. Now? Now he was pretty certain he could knock Arisawa on her ass, and that girl was a national-level practitioner of karate, for her age group. Which was impressive as fuck as far as he was concerned.
He nodded to himself at the cumulative effect of all of his rolls. He was definitely feeling a lot more secure about his future fighting masked monsters in the dark now that he had the skill and a trait to back it up that would greatly improve his survival chances.
Maybe it was worth it to get the attention of the scary smart man and his pet talking cat.
…
No, it fucking wasn't because he was damned sure they were hidden monsters playing at normal in the starting area!
Dammit.
-----Line Break-----
Yoruichi sat on the ceiling inside of Arashi's apartment, watching the boy. It had been child's play for her to blitz past him faster than he could see to get inside. It was even easier for her to use a minuscule amount of reiryoku to stick to the ceiling as if it were the ground.
It had been worth the effort. It was kind of cute how Arashi talked to himself, and it had given her some insight into his strange abilities. Judging by his expressions and words, whatever power he had was random and didn't always guarantee good results. She was also one hundred percent certain that at least one of his gains had been perverted. She'd had to fight not to giggle at the look on his face.
Two of them had drawn her full attention, though. After he'd gained them, there had been subtle visible changes in the way he held himself. Signs that he'd suddenly gone from a kid who barely knew where the pointy end of his sword was to someone dangerous and potentially deadly in combat. It was in the way he stood, the way he now walked, the subtle shifts and changes that only another expert would be capable of noticing. He no longer walked; he prowled. Light on his feet, head on a swivel, senses ready to react to any perceived threat.
She couldn't help wondering what Kisuke would make of his ability to 'roll tickets' and suddenly become an expert fighter. Oh yes, he was infinitely more interesting than Isshin's kid.
-----Line Break-----
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Arashi stood at an intersection, once more lost on his way home from a convenience store. He'd lost his groceries during the fight the previous night and had been reminded of it when he'd gone to his fridge to get lunch. Naturally, that meant he needed to go to the store, which took him an hour to find. Why? Because of his last curse!
[Curse discovered!]
[Lost, Medium Curse, Your sense of direction is as good as Zoro's, but you can get lost on a nearly straight path. You will probably need someone with you to help guide you around and make sure you don't wander off. Resolve: Acquire a trait or ability that helps fix your sense of direction, must be at least rare rank, such as prophetic compass, library mind, etc.]
Just thinking about the curse made him scowl. He'd only just gotten his superpowers but had been made to suffer from his curses since childhood. It was bullshit. Even more bullshit was the giant black monster with a tiger-like mask that was currently staring at him like he was a Happy Meal.
“This is just pure bullshit!”
He kept his swearing to low mutters, the last thing he needed was people to see someone that looked as 'thugish' as him to be swearing loudly on the streets. That would definitely not do his reputation any good.
Arashi and the monster, the Hollow, stared at each other for a long moment. Then the Hollow howled. It was an eerie sound that sent a shiver down Arashi's spine. The large monster then charged right at him. Unlike the gorilla-like one from the night before, this one ran on two legs despite its tiger-like mask.
Arashi did the only thing he could. He turned on his heels and ran the hell away. He wasn't about to fight the invisible-to-everyone-else monster in the middle of a busy intersection. That would just be asking for trouble, let alone what it would do to his reputation to be seen swinging an invisible sword at an invisible monster.
According to Kisuke and the others, Arashi's Asauchi was a spirit weapon, invisible to anyone without a strong spiritual awareness. Given no one had even glanced at the sheathed sword as he walked home with it, he tended to believe the claim. Especially since the sword's own description backed up Kisuke's claim and inclined Arashi to believe Kisuke knew what he was talking about.
Arashi only managed to run a block before the Hollow was right behind him and taking a swing at his back. It was only thanks to his brand new skill in hand-to-hand combat that Arashi was able to dodge the attack. Arashi skidded to a halt and spun around to face the beast. He may have only run a block, but the area around them was empty of people.
He was unaware of the black cat stalking him or how it had quickly emptied the area of humans.
Arashi dropped into a combat stance like he'd been doing it for decades. He planned to fight the monster bare-handed for the time being, since his skill would only help him learn how to use a sword, but hadn't given him any actual skill with it. Between Battle Growth, Regeneration, and Expert Hand-to-hand, he was certain he could fight the monster and weaken it for a killing blow from his Asauchi.
That was yet another thing Kisuke had explained to him. Hollows could only be killed by slicing their mask in half with a spiritual weapon of some kind. What kind of bullshit was that? Then again, he was clearly in some sort of Battle Shounen world with a crazy gacha system, so the rules didn't really have to make sense.
Arashi and the Hollow moved at the same time. The Hollow swung its much larger arm, clearly intending to bash Arashi into paste. Arashi could see the blow coming a mile away and felt zero threat from it. He easily slipped past the sloppy punch and got close to the Hollow. He lashed out with a perfectly executed jab using all of his strength that slammed into the Hollow's abdomen. His fist impacted with a loud bang that sounded like a large firecracker going off, and with enough force to send the Hollow sliding back a small distance of a few centimeters.
The Hollow howled and began throwing a continuous stream of punches, combined with attempted grabs to get its hands on Arashi. None of it worked. Arashi slipped through the Hollows' blind attempts like a master and countered every last one with a punishing blow of his own. Each hit he landed was a little harder than the previous one, his strength slowly growing throughout the fight thanks to Battle Growth.
Even if the Hollow lacked skill, it was still technically stronger than Arashi in every physical aspect. It wasn't a hard battle, which meant the growth was slower than it had been the previous night when he'd been fighting for his life. Still, it was growth that he could notice thanks to his enhanced skills.
Arashi didn't know how long he'd been fighting for, but he was shocked when he slipped past one of the Hollows' attacks and slammed his fist into its elbow as a counterattack, only for its elbow to completely shatter and bend the wrong way. The Hollows' next scream was one of agony.
Not one to waste an opportunity now that he had the skill to recognize it, Arashi pulled his Asauchi out of his inventory and unsheathed it with determination written all over his face. The Hollow blindly lashed out in its pain, something easily dodged that allowed Arashi to get close and perform a vertical slash with his sword that cut clean through the monster's mask.
Once again, Arashi watched as the Hollow's body began disintegrating, though this time he noted a few larger motes of light floating from its corpse before fading away.
“Much better than last time.”
Arashi jumped at the sound of the familiar deep masculine voice and spun around to see Yoruichi sitting on the sidewalk staring up at him, “It's almost like you went from a street punk to a well-trained fighter in a matter of hours.”
Arashi wanted to vehemently object to the cat giving him a gimlet eye as it continued, “I think we need to have a serious talk.”
Arashi scowled, “I don't want to.”
Yoruichi smirked. How could a cat SMIRK?! But Yoruichi pulled it off and smugly informed Arashi, “You will if you want to make it home before sometime tomorrow. You've been walking further and further from your place with every step you take.”
Arashi scowled fiercely while looking around for anything that looked familiar... There was nothing. Thinking about it, he'd also never been to the convenience store he'd bought his groceries from. Speaking of those, he spotted the bag of his food sitting right next to Yoruichi. At least the cat was nice enough to make sure it didn't get destroyed.
His choice was made for him when the cat continued, “We have much to talk about, like your gambling habit.”
Arashi paled drastically, “Fuck.”
The look on Yoruichi's face... Sure, cats were smug, but no cat should look THAT SMUG!
Yoruichi stood up, tail flicking, and looking even more smug, if possible, “Follow me.”
No matter what anyone else might have said if they saw him, Arashi did not pout as he followed the weirdly smug talking cat toward the candy shop with the scary smart owner.
…
What had his life become?
AN
10.2k words
Blame Loghead101 for this chapter, it's entirely his fault.
Some might be upset at Arashi's Gacha being uncovered, but we have to remember that Kisuke is one of, if not the, smartest people in the setting. Only Kurotsuchi Mayuri and Souske Aizen are shown to be at the same level of intelligence. I'm fairly certain both of them would have noticed the Gacha as well. Especially if he used it right in front of them like he did Kisuke.
His rolls are also something else. I do have a few specific rules for this story that did have me reroll once or twice. First, no Familiars. I just don't want to try to reconcile other power systems with Bleach's. Especially with the whole spiritual aspect of the series. Second, no race changes. If anything, he'll become a Shinigami, and I don't feel like trying to reconcile 'ghost' with things like Demon, werewolf, and so on. I'm sure it could be done, I just don't want to. Other than that, whatever rolls he gets are his to keep.
Right now, I'd put Arashi's strength at the level of an average Shinigami Academy Graduate. Fodder, in other words. But that obviously can change extremely quickly. A bit of training with Yoruichi or Kisuke could easily get him to the level of a seated officer in a very short amount of time.
Anyway, I had fun writing this. Let me know what you all thought.