Chapter 1 - The beginning and end

“Captain is telling you to hurry up!” I called, banging at the door.
“Tell him to come and tell me himself” came the short, stubborn reply.
I couldn’t wait any longer; I pushed open the door and looked inside. There was no-one there. How strange, I’m sure that I had heard the young lieutenant’s voice a second ago. Suddenly I was on the floor and Lieutenant Hiroshi was sitting on my back, pulling my hair.
“Didn’t I tell you that not to come and annoy me?” the little silver-haired girl asked in a mocking tone.
“But...”
“No buts, if the Captain wants me to hurry up, you’ll have to ask him to come here and tell me that”
“But captain is...”
“Oh what is going on how?” Captain Ichimaru had walked in.
“Sorry captain...” I didn’t even manage to finish my sentence.
“It’s alright, I realise that Nasumi would not move unless I came and told her to” the captain smiled. “Now Nasumi, would you get off poor Asuma’s back?”
Next second, the weight had lifted from my back and Lieutenant Hiroshi was standing next to her captain. Man, do people here move fast.
Today is going to be our first trip out of this place and we (I think) are going to the world of humans. This is the first time and Captain says that it is going to be a great trip. The trip is not a long one, but I am a bit nervous about the humans.
I used to be human once, but now after death I have come to this place or this world I should say. Now I have finally gained back the memories of when I was human, I don’t want to go back to that world ever again. Being a shinigami it is our job to collect the souls of the dead people and to bring them to this world for judgement. However, before I can do that I would have to go through ‘Shinigami School’, so this is just like what you would call a school trip.
I followed Captain and Lieutenant outside, there were many people there, but none of them looked as serious as Lieutenant Hiroshi. It was amazing how that girl could suddenly change personalities. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her, drawing a large circle in the soft dirt and scratching various symbols around it. Of course, this would be our portal to the other world. I was getting really nervous now, I knew that the humans couldn’t see me but I still didn’t like the idea of going back to that place.
The six of us stood in the circle, holding hands. Of course, for this spell to work properly we all had to concentrate very hard on our destination and the captain would repeat the chant that will take us there. This would have been much easier if we all went by ourselves instead of going in a group, but the captain was worried that we might end up in the wrong place. I tried hard to concentrate on our destination, but other thoughts kept on crossing my mind.
There was a sudden bright flash and we had arrived, it took quite awhile for my eyes to adjust to the dark. We were standing in the middle of a large park, all six of us, luckily none of us had gotten lost. However before I could even start getting used to the surrounding Captain Ichimaru had announced that we had tasks to do.
“Now we are here, we will start the training” Captain Ichimaru announced “As you all know, this School trip is not just for fun. You four young shinigami were chosen on this trip because of you exceptional skills, so now you will have to use them the best you can.”
Lieutenant Hiroshi stepped forward, “You first task will be to find and bring back the soul of a person who has just died.” Suddenly Lieutenant smiled that childish smile of hers again, “Of course, there are conditions. One, you’ll have to do this blindfolded and two, there is a time limit of a day.”
I stared, I knew that there would were tasks and I also knew that they would be hard, but I didn’t expect them to be this hard. “You-you’ve got to be joking.” I stammered, “You can’t expect us to that that! That’s impossible!”
“Not impossible, just hard very hard for someone who has never done this before”
I spun around to see who was talking. It was Keiko, another shinigami-in-training. I stared at her, how could she think that it was possible? There was a long silence. Suddenly Lieutenant Hiroshi decided to break the silence, “I will show you that it is possible” she giggled. The young lieutenant put on a black blindfold and turned towards Captain Ichimaru. “I’ll be back in five minutes” she said in that childish voice of hers. Before the Captain could reply, she had disappeared into the black night.
In truth, Lieutenant Hiroshi didn’t really take five minutes. She had come back almost instantly, dragging behind her a weary looking soul behind her. I stared, how quick can people get? I turned around to see the young lieutenant with her back to me. She looked at me with her usual wide smile drawn across her face. I felt my face going red, why did she always have to prove me wrong in everything?
“Now I have proved that it is possible haven’t I?” Nasumi giggled, “So, even a little girl like me could do it, so why couldn’t a big brave man like you?”
“But you’re a lieutenant and...”My voice faded away as I realised what I was about to say.
“And what?” questioned the young lieutenant.
“Nothing,” I muttered in reply. I turned around to walk away, but as soon as I turned I found myself face-to-face with Nasumi.
“And what?” she grinned
“Nothing”
“But you were about to say something!”
“Well I forgot, Okay?”
“No you didn’t”
“Well-”
“You two are always having arguments!” Captain Ichimaru laughed, “Now Nasumi, its time for Asuma and them to start.”
“Okay, Izumi!” replied Lieutenant Hiroshi obediently. It was amazing how much control Captain Ichimaru had over Nasumi (when I couldn’t control her at all).
Even though the blindfold was made of very thin material, once I put it on, I couldn’t see a thing. I tried to look though this material but it was impossible. This was all up to us and our instincts to try and find a soul now. I tried to sense the things around me. I failed horribly and walked straight into a tree. I managed to get up again, but however I had lost the footpath.
Finally after about half an hour of falling over and walking into trees I managed to find my way back to the footpath. I’m so bad at things like this so I made a mental note that I would never do this ever again. I continued on my journey, this was getting easier or I think it was. I could almost make out some large objects that were around me. Suddenly I sensed a soul somewhere, this distracted me and I lost concentration. I took a step without knowing where I was going and fell down a flight of stairs.
Even if I couldn’t sense objects around me, I could sense spirits and souls. There was a soul right in front of me and I could sense it. I moved faster than I thought I could and grabbed onto the soul of the young boy. I sprinted up the steps, it was surprisingly long saying that it only took me a couple of seconds to get to the bottom.
“Captain Ichimaru, Lieutenant Hiroshi! I…” I think I hit that tree again. I felt the blindfold being taken off and next second I was blinking at the sudden flood of light.
“Your task did not include running into me!” laughed Captain Ichimaru.
“I’m sorry,” I replied as I stood up. I noticed at once that the other shinigami were already back. However I also noticed that Lieutenant Hiroshi wasn’t there. “Where is err…Nasumi?”
“Off to have some time alone, I suppose.” answered Captain Ichimaru. “Her death-day is getting nearer and her powers are getting weaker. I am sure that she’ll be back sooner or later”
The rest of the day when by so slowly, it seemed so quiet when Lieutenant Hiroshi wasn’t around. It was very dull, after all Nasumi was always the icing on the cake. Captain Ichimaru had announced that we could not start our second task until Lieutenant Hiroshi had come back.
Day after day, we waited but Lieutenant had still not come back yet. By the 8th day this trip was beginning to turn into a nightmare. The Captain had become very quiet and thoughtful, and we could tell that he was very worried. It was Nasumi’s death-day which meant that that her powers would be the weakest today.
“We need to go and search for her.” Announced the captain, he sounded very worried. “Keiko, Hideki and Toya go together and I’ll go with Asuma.”
“Yes, Captain.” Replied Keiko, Hideki and Toya in unison. They disappeared instantly, not leaving any signs of them every being there. I stared at where they disappeared and whispered, “Its going to be alright isn’t it? We’re going to find her aren’t we?”
There was a long pause before captain replied. “Hopefully,” he said sadly. Suddenly, as if something just clicked, he returned to his normal self and laughed, “Why don’t we start looking now? We might be able find her by sunset.”
So there began our journey to find the missing lieutenant. I tried my best to keep up with Captain Ichimaru, but he was always a step ahead of me. I decided to try to find her using one of the methods of tracking souls. It was impossible, there was so many spirits here that it was hard to pick out a single one, even if it was a shinigami. I asked the captain if he could try. He tried, but was only able to pick out her spirit force.
“It’s growing weaker, and its getting harder for me to focus on it.” murmured Captain Ichimaru.
“Please, just concentrate. We have to find her!” I half screamed at him.
“I can’t, it’s just too hard. We’ll have to find her another way”
“Is there another way?”
“Well yes, but even if we try it, we might not be able to find her in time”
“What do you mean by ‘in time’?”
Captain sighed. “Even though it is no longer her death-day, her spirit force is still getting weaker. This is not a good sign; it means that she might -”
“Die?”
“Yes, she could die.”
I was so shocked that I couldn’t speak, “b-b-but-but isn’t she already dead? I mean, how could she die again?” I managed to stammer.
“That is one of the things that cannot be explained. A shinigami can live forever unless they are some killed.” sighed Captain Ichimaru, “Let’s not talk about this and get on with the search.”
That night I sat by myself under a tree, watching the stars. I went though all the things that have happened so far on this school trip; the first task, Nasumi’s disappearance, the search and the facts I have to face now. I wish now that I never came on trip, it was turning into a nightmare. Was finding the lieutenant was the second task? I made a mental note to ask the captain tomorrow. I remembered what Captain had said, ‘That is one of the things that cannot be explained. A shinigami can live forever unless they are some killed.’ Still thinking over these things, I fell into a troubled sleep.
I woke up, suddenly alert. I could feel a spirit force, far stronger than any spirit force than I’ve ever felt before. I spun around, expecting to see some kind of monster. I was surprised when I saw Captain Ichimaru standing there with his back to me. I walked up to him and saw what he was doing. He was standing there, hands in front of him and muttering a spell under his breath. His sword was floating in front of him, spinning. I stared, I knew this method, it was used to track down shinigami and shinigami alone. This method was almost never used because it was very dangerous and could not be done by an average shinigami.
I watched in awe and the captain continued the spell. The sword started to slow down and finally stopped. “Come quickly!” whispered the captain as he started running in the direction the sword was pointing to.
I had no idea we were going, but I trusted the captain. I kept on following him, even after he disappeared from my sight. I suddenly stopped running, I didn’t even know why. Nasumi, it was her, definitely her spirit force. I ran toward where I though she was. I closed my eyes and suddenly everything became much clearer.
When I opened my eyes I was on the top of a tall skyscraper. I looked around, I could sense Nasumi’s spirit force, and I could also sense a very unfamiliar spirit force.
“So, you have some come after all.” A voice behind me sneered.
I turned slowly to see who had talked. It was a big, tall hairy man, but what I noticed more was what was behind him. It was Nasumi, she was in a cage. I could see that she had been crying, which was very unusual for her. I had completely forgotten about the hairy man until he spoke.
“She’s not gonna live much longer,” the hairy man laughed, “If you want her, then you’ll have to kill me first.”
“How-how could you?” I whispered. I was angry, angrier than I had ever been in my life before. I took my sword and started slashing blindly and the hairy man. “I’m not going to forgive you for this!”
The man laughed, “Let’s not get to that yet, if you keep on slashing like that, you’ll be tried out before the fight actually starts.” And with that he flash stepped behind me and struck. I managed to doge the blow but I was thrown off-balance. That was when the fight really began. We fought long and hard, but finally I managed to gain the upper hand. The hairy man knew that he we defeated, so he opened the cage and grabbed Nasumi, “It looks like I’m gonna die, so I might as well die happy.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, “Your not going to do anything to Nasumi, are you?”
“When I was alive, this girl’s mum killed my brother. So, I decided to kill this girl in revenge. But now she’s still here. I’m gonna get my revenge no matter what. I will never forgive her, she and her mother are exactly the same, the same smile, the same tone of voice and that is why I hate her so much” and with that he grabbed Nasumi and jumped off the edge of the skyscraper.
“NO!” I couldn’t believe it, it couldn’t have happened, it just couldn’t! I stared at the spot Nasumi disappeared, half expecting that she would magically reappear again somehow. She couldn’t have died, she just couldn’t! It suddenly hit me that I would never see her smiling face ever again.
I will never go on another school trip, nor will I ever forget what happened on that nightmare of a school trip.

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