Bleach Hereafter RPG

The faint aura of their souls were the only source of light in the darkness, which reflected on the glass-like flooring, and beyond that were swirling clouds of reishi which supported their human forms in the vertical position of the endless void. Yukari held her breath for a second when Iwan placed his palm on her bare shoulder, she controlled her breathing knowing she successfully managed to escape soul society, and the nightmare she was suffering from had temporarily come to an end. As she listened to his explanation of herding the menos back into garganta, it was unclear what happened to them after that, and the Soma clan was forced to interfere in the situation, who he referred to as her extended family. The Aihara clan had been in debt for so long, she immediately felt guilty if any of the Soma clan members put themselves in danger because of her, adding more to the debt that went beyond finances; it was blood.

Iwan’s hand shifted from her shoulder to her arm, something in the distance was calling him, she sensed part of it too, and suddenly they were running towards it. Was it another Quincy? No, it did not feel alive, it was close to Iwan’s soul aura but it was not the same. What was it?

“My family is innocent but I am not. I attacked that shinigami first, he was alone, I figured if I bested him I could escape and figure out the repercussions of my actions until I made sure everyone back at home was safe. Even if I went home...I am also afraid of what would happen if The Soma clan found out what I have done.” Yukari sniffed the stale air, “Everything was normal until I developed my unstable fullbring release. Doesn’t that mean the reason the menos keep coming...is because of me? The only way to know for sure is if I lie low for a while…and figure out what I should do next.”

A pulsing sound echoed through the void, the rifle Iwan was carrying had an embedded cross glowing in the same rhythm, and she shuffled her footing to pull on his arm with her free hand.

“Pokuta.” Yukari blinked her hazel eyes, she felt rather fatigued from battle, while it was effortless to use her reishi to heal herself she was forced to conserve it to remain conscious, and she gripped his forearm tightly to stop him in his tracks and notice the cross with his own eyes.

Yukari pouted at Iwan’s statement of her habits with a sword but that soon faded when he told her not to worry about it so much. The hunter was lost in thought until he took the time to examine Pokuta, together they rushed over in the same direction they were running towards, finding an ornate door that only became visible when they were standing in front of it. The cross on the riffle came out in one swift movement, there was no hesitation that it was the key to the door, fitting it perfectly to open it.



Stepping inside, they were both wondering the same thing, an interdimensional door was floating in the middle of Garganta that led into a room where there was no wall or building structure behind it. Yukari instinctively closed the double metal doors behind her, she flinched when they automatically securely locked with cogs, mechanisms, and a numeric pad above the lock changed from scrambled symbols to a series of zeros.

Hazel eyes peered over to look at Iwan as he began to search the room, he asked her with a bold face, what it could all mean, or where this place initially came from only to dismiss the question after some thought. There was only one answer, it was now his own inter dimensional space, it was only made accessible with his Quincy aura, and the cross used as a key based on her observation. The hunter mentioned that he could not detect another soul in the vicinity but she could have determined that with her own abilities unless he initially thought that someone was near before their arrival; which would also explain all the running.

Yukari dug out a small book, nested in a pocket sewn inside her armored obi designer boot, the volume was nearly burned, the entire corner the edges were ruined, and the cover was frail. While she had a new edition of this student handbook at the beginning of every school year, which held new information, she often had to re-study it for any changes. As she flipped open the section on Quincy, the only information provided of them was the history of the genocide caused by the shinigami many years ago, as well as their weaponry being long ranged weapons, and their style of dress in order to identify them. The information was last updated in the year 1420 by a Soma clan member, it was even older than the entry on shinigami, and she was beginning to wonder if it was difficult for the clan to procure the information directly from the source; which is what Rei Soma had attempted to do. A cross with a web like exterior was illustrated on the same page, the only common design was the inner circle, the one in her student hand book had an additional web latticed around the circle, and she distinctively remembered that Iwan’s was a different shape.

”Have you...met other Quincy apart from your family? Do you all possess the same cross? According to this, I believe you all have the same base design, with a holy cross and circle where it intersects, but Pokuta’s cross has an octagon instead of a smooth circle, it also doesn’t have this web like lattice like the one in this drawing.” Yukari reflected by rubbing her chin in thought, “My theory is that this place belongs to your family of Quincy. You have the key which is significant to you. Perhaps you can find additional evidence in your exploration.”

A blush tinted her cheeks, she held her breath after she realized she was acting like a student, and tried to calm her anxiety with subtle breathing, “I-In case you’re wondering, I have an excellent history teacher at the Academy, Iokua Soma Sensei often covers religion, symbolism, and how it is tied into our cosmology...d-despite the rest of the world not knowing we exist among humans.”

While he searched the place, she quietly motioned over to the navy blue velvet chaise, and sat down. There was a water tank of holographic jellyfish, with a plastic silk ivy planter above it, and beyond it was a luminous chandelier that looked like a Medusozoa, that of a blue Pacific sea nettle, which was native to her homeland. A sigh escaped her lips, a place like this would allow her some time to think of the future, and as soon as Iwan crossed her path she reached out pulling on the hem of his shirt tightly, with a hole Hanako made with her sword, to stop him in his tracks.

“I am sorry.” Yukari breathed deeply, “Thank you.”

The statement of making mistakes while young, made her curious about his past since he rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke, she figured him out for being confident after wrangling some menos grande, and she nodded in response when he offered a light tap of assurance on her shoulder. After she recovered from all the running earlier she helped him search for clues. All the decor was familiar to her as art deco, a gilded art style from the roaring twenties, she was an avid reader, and the past five generations of the Aihara clan of blacksmiths kept art books in the small library of the farm to influence their craft. Everything inside this place was crafted in the highest caliber, as if frozen in time, from three generations past. Anyone who lived in their youth in that era would be nearly one hundred years old today. The vintage year on some of the alcohol bottles on display was evidence enough, each one could be worth millions at auction for the avid collector, a 1926 bottle of whiskey sold for nearly two million, and Yukari immediately followed closely after Iwan at the revelation of being surrounded in material items she could never afford in an entire lifetime.



Modern technology in metal works had limited her father, Haku Aihara, from having a career in smithing, resorting to small jobs as a handyman, the only time he used his skills was spent making fitted horseshoes for the local farmers, and on rare occasion metal garden sculptures for tourists. While his father before him, made swords for the fullbringers at the Academy in the sixties, conventional focuses were soon replacing weapons. Everything about this place would please her father in terms of the craftsmanship and she wished he could see it for himself.

In the cylindrical room below the Medusozoa chandelier was a giant pool table, it was as beautiful as the grandeur of the place, instead of typical billiard balls it was the solar system. Yukari flicked the sun and watched in awe as it hit the other planets centered at the table. It was easy for her to get distracted, after some thought, she realized the hologram of the moon jelly tank, and this pool table were modern decor compared to the rest of the furniture. Perhaps in the era of disco fever in the seventies with lava lamps and flashy adult entertainment at bar scenes were influential to this room, with a classier touch of moon jelly instead of goldfish, and celestial style of the stars and sea.



The last room on the main floor was brightly lit, there were hutches covered in drapes, and another table covered in cloth with a single ornate chair. On the wall across from the massive metal art deco wall behind her were several portraits of people, she nearly jumped at Iwan’s excitement after recognizing someone, explaining it was his great grandfather, the final clue to discerning that he inherited this place directly from his family of Quincy.

“Ho'omaika'i 'ana.” Yukari smiled as she watched him go down a hallway to ascend the stairs to the upper floors.

With the search for clues being over, she decided to open one of the armoires, Yukari found several white monk style robes, attached to the inside of the door were Quincy crosses each with their own chain loop, and if she had a wild guess about the significance of this room, it was headquarters for battle against hollows perhaps even shinigami given the history between them.

Iwan rejoined her, shortly after she lost track of him ascending the stairs, he cleared his throat with a grunt as he placed several books on the table in the middle of the room written in a language she did not know.



“I take it, you do not enjoy studying?” Yukari raised a quizzical brow as he flipped through a few pages. “Knowing that everyone is safe back at home, I believe you have plenty of time to read through these, I would offer my help but I cannot read any of the text. I did notice something particular about the front door, there was a numeric pad, it was scrambled at first, but then it turned to zeros. Not sure if it's safe to open right now, my gut feeling is telling me we are not in garganta anymore, dialing in coordinates possibly determines the gateway outside? It’s just a hypothesis, better to be safe than sorry...don’t want to end up somewhere we are not supposed to go and get vacuumed into oblivion.”

The tan teenager stood by for an answer before heading up stairs for necessary rest to recover enough reishi to heal her own wounds.

Yukari nodded at the revelation that Iwan partied at her age, she was an obedient daughter to her parents so she was fully aware of the concept, her younger brother Haruka kept hanging out with people on the island that were older than him doing much of the same; until their cousin was incidentally adopted by their parents, Kenji encouraged Haruka to play soccer instead, leaving behind that type of lifestyle, they both moved out together to study abroad in South Africa. With a deep bow she dismissed herself quietly, so that he could focus, and ascended the stairs to the room he instructed to go to.

The bedroom hardly had any dust, which only accrued whenever people entered in and out of rooms typically, it meant it was either not used or cleaned recently, there were no windows anywhere, apart from the seemingly frosted glass door of the front entrance. Exhausted from battling, she collapsed instantly on the silk bed, it felt like heaven against her face and she felt rather guilty about not changing out of her clothes; more specifically concerned over ripping the frail fabric with her armored arms and boots. Silk of this quality could potentially survive another four hundred years, given that the oldest kimono in a museum made from the same material was from the 16th century, and was still on display, perhaps it was even stiff from age. After a few hours of needed sleep to recover her pool of reishi, she sprang up when Iwan called her name, she looked around and did not see him so perhaps it was out of instinct that she knew he was calling her. With a quick stretch, she rolled out of bed, and placed a hand on her chest to heal her all the cuts, burns, and bruises instantly.

As she prepared to rejoin her gracious host, she felt something odd on her back, standing in front of a framed mirror mounted on the wall, she took a look at the surface of her tan skin on the middle of her lower back, the the top edge of her red high waisted a-line pencil skirt was stretched down partly, she did not have to see the entirety of the wound to realize that the ember that Iroh exploded left a permanent sunburst mark on her delicate skin. It would take years to remove it, she was feeling rather self conscious about it, if she was ever going to surf again in the future, it would be an obvious visible mark, without her long hair to cover it from view.

After descending the flight of stairs, she quietly walked over to Iwan, she stood at the same height as him since her platform boots gave her a six inch boost in order to wield her sword, and she noticed he had been working with the key panel.

“What did you find out, Iwan-san?”

The book Iwan handed her carefully taken in her hands, as he explained how the inter dimensional door functioned, she was feeling rather nervous of holding such a relic of the past, the Quincy monks had quite a history she did not learn about at the Academy. Everything Iwan said was new to her and she parted her lips in awe. After some thought, she did not fully understand the reasoning behind the mass genocide of his kind by the Shinigami, a record which only The Sōma clan was in possession of. To put it in perspective, fullbringers could also be purged in the same way as the Quincy, if they drew too much of soul society’s attention as a threat to their balance.

“My history teacher mentioned that after the bombing of Oahu the minor clans and the Sōma clan had to deal with the hollows in the aftermath. My great grandfather was involved at that time. It’s the primary reason the Academy today focuses on training our fullbringer powers. It is the exposure of hollow attacks that our neighborhood residents are born spiritually aware for generations...but the Sōma clan are originally from Japan during the time of the shogunate. I believe only the direct descendants know what took place during that time to awaken their powers during that period of history.”

It was then after Iwan moved the dial and pressed on the keypad to explain that historical heroes were the key to traveling. The hunter opened the door revealing they were in Lithuania as a legendary location for a Quincy hero in Vilnius. The cold breeze did not faze her, even without her coat, as long as she could still breathe the air the heart of her hollow tainted soul was that of the element of fire which kept her warm as long as she had enough reishi.

“There is a limit when returning back to the living world based on historical locations but the door appeared in garganta which means you summoned it to your location somehow? So it’s a one way trip leaving but you can return here from anywhere in the world, right? I suppose you studied how or why it appeared in Garganta, right?” Yukari smiled, “Your family...you never gave me your last name, they all have amazing abilities to have made this wonderful place. It has a name after all?”

After a beat of hearing his answers, the tan teenage girl closed the book gently, handing it back to him, and frowned, “I must admit I slept the entire time I was in the room. I did not come up with any conclusions about the trouble I caused in Soul Society with fighting against the Third seat of the Tenth division shinigami. I feel I burdened you a great deal, Iwan-san.” Yukari took a breath, “After the incident with Hanako, I am ashamed for threatening your life, and remarking on placing your name on your grave site. I can never apologize enough for that. Above all else you were a guest at the Aihara Estate’s bed and breakfast when my mother mistook you as a foreigner. I thought you would leave but you stayed, which was enough for my parents to buy plane tickets for my brothers to visit during summer vacation from South Africa. You called me przyjaciel but a real friend would not trouble you so much without giving you anything in return.”

After she poured her heart out, she bit her bottom lip nervously, and hugged him by the neck. “Aloha, goodbye. A hui hou mākou, until we meet again.” With a parting kiss on Iwan’s cheek, she slipped out of the way forcing the door open enough for her to step outside, her six inch okobo platform boots clicked against the cobblestone alleyway, as she approached the sidewalk she turned the corner to the nearest phone booth to call collect to her home or the academy if the household did not answer.

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Yukari ignored the stares from pedestrians, she was under dressed for the cold weather, and most importantly carrying a six foot long sheathed ceremonial sword which caused some people to stop in their tracks. When she reached the phone booth, she had no problem stepping inside of it, and took the time to remove her scarf to wrap her sword neatly, using a red cord to secure the cloth. Now it looked like she was carrying skis or stilts on her back. There was a clock on the phone screen, which was modern in technology, it was also two weeks past since she left home, she missed the last week of the semester at the Academy which made her sigh in disappointment. The flow of time was constant in all planes of existence, it was faster, and slower in some instances. Until someone chronologically studied time between them all, it was difficult to tell what a round trip would be like, and she pulled out her cellphone from inside her boot. The phone was flipped open, it was out of service, but it was still showing the time on the island. The time difference in Hawaii was thirteen hours behind, it was ten in the morning in Lithuania and it was nine in the evening in Hawai’i.

The collect call was made, her father answered, he sighed in relief hearing her voice asking her what happened. Yukari explained she was in a bit of trouble with soul society and that Iwan helped her get out of Garganta but Lithuania was as far as she could get out. Promptly her father used his laptop to check for flights to get out of the country from the Vilnius International Airport to the island of Honolulu, the next available flight was in two weeks, it was a popular global tourist destination so daily flights were slim to none. It was then that she wondered if it was wise to even go back home, there was also the matter of going to the US Consolate to secure her passport first before getting a plane ticket anywhere, and she asked for directions on how to get there first. Using her student handbook, she wrote the directions on the note section on the back, and wrote down the address followed by the rough directions when she looked at the cross streets, fortunately the letters were somewhat legible to her with some accents.

Haku asked if she had money for food and a place to stay but Yukari insisted she would figure it out on her own and that she wanted to get to the consulate first so she could call him back with an update. The call ended then, she stepped out to look around this old city, she was near a post office and several bars which were not closed at this hour. Looking at her burned handbook she crossed the street heading west, along with crowds of people, and walked several blocks towards her destination which was along a river so it was easy not to get lost.

Once she reached the us consulate it was empty, she was greeted by a receptionist who spoke English of course, and Yukari lied that she recently lost her passport while on a field trip with her class. The truth always found a way, she asked where her teachers were, and she said they already left without her since they had round trip tickets. Anxiety was consuming her whole at this point, she was famished, and still rather weak with only a few hours of sleep. The receptionist adjusted her red glasses with conviction and asked for ID in which Yukari provided her driving license for the state of Hawai’i and she began punching in the information on her computer. Afterwards she handed it back and told her she was going to ask a series of important questions. The first one being if she feels she may have been a victim of human trafficking.

The tan teenager was shocked, she almost felt accused by being asked that question, in which she promptly answered that she was not. The next question was if she had her plane ticket with her and she said she had it folded inside her lost passport. The third question involved when she first arrived at the airport and how long she was in the country. Fuck. The US government was quite thorough they could easily look up all of this information just by tracking her passport number and matching it up with her story as the receptionist typed her answers.

“You know what. I am going to check the hotel again, to see if they found my passport, I was just in a panic because I missed my flight with the rest of the class. I will be back if I don’t have any luck finding it first.” Yukari bowed her head and left calmly walking far enough away from the building to find the nearest phone booth to call her father again. The consulate was suspicious of human trafficking if she did not come up with a believable story of being on a school trip of having been on a flight from Hawai’i to Vilnius that matched the schedule from a week or more past.

Now she was considering her options and taking a train across the country either via the Silk route train or Trans Siberian railway to South Korea then ferry to Osaka Japan to stay with relatives until her father could mail her passport over to them. Haku agreed that it was most likely the best option since the world was unfamiliar with supernatural phenomena that got her into this situation. The address to the nearest train station from the US consolate was written down as well as the location for the nearest money transfer facility but she explained without her passport she would be unable to collect the money he wired. The myriad of problems was giving her a headache, she had some pocket money, and she would start with exchanging it for euros first to get something to eat so she could plan the next course of action.

“It’s getting late, do not stay up all night, otosan. You know okasan cannot tend to the farm on her own all the time. Trust me, I will be fine. I may not know the languages on this side of the continent but I will manage.”

Haku chuckled, he believed in Yukari being able to survive on her own, if she can survive Garganta and Soul Society the world of the living was practically cake.

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