Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Lucifer's Angel ❯ Chapter 2

It was their second night of scouting. During the day, they took refuge in a designated house and kept the radar tracking going from in there while receiving reports from Soul Society. With the information, they planned out where they would search.

Renji didn't care. From the pattern of the reports, he would almost say that their prey was deliberately leading them where he wanted. That is, of course, if the strange orange-haired man was who they were trying to find, and Renji had a feeling he was.

He also had a feeling he would see the man again at the same spot, and a part of him wanted that little bit of information to be kept to himself. After all, this was a scouting mission and he didn't have everything he needed to make a proper report.

• • • • • •

He had the glasses off but the man was nowhere. “Dammit…”

“Lookin' for me?”

Renji whipped around, trying to find the source, but the voice was directionless - everywhere and nowhere all at once. “What the…”

The voice chuckled. “Funny how the gods know nothing about the angels.”

“What're you talking about? Who the hell are you?”

“I think the more effective question would be what the hell am I.”

“Forget questions - show yourself, bastard.”

“So noisy…” he sighed. He materialized on a bottom row crate, leaning against the wall.

“You actually listened…”

“Sorry, I feel bad teasing retards.”

Renji fumed. “Real clever, creep.”

He laughed. “Ah, so what was your question? Who the hell am I? Well, I'll gladly tell you if you tell me your name first, shinigami.”

“Sixth division lieutenant Abarai Renji.”

“Oh, so you've got a title. Well, in that case, I'm myoujou no tenshi Kurosaki Ichigo.”

“Myoujou no tenshi?”

“As I said, you gods no nothing of the angels. I suppose that's just as well - it's not every day we choose to show ourselves.”

“Why are you showing yourself, then?”

Ichigo looked a bit uncomfortable. “That's not important.”

“Screw importance - spill it.”

“I don't think you're in a position to speak to me that way. I can hurt you just as easily as I healed you.”

“Point taken,” Renji grumbled. “So what exactly are you?”

“I told you, I am an angel of Lucifer. You know, the Devil? Ruler of Hell?”

“So you weren't kidding about that…”

“Of course not. But I suppose you wish to know what my purpose is, correct?”

“That'd be helpful.”

“Where you shinigami are the gods of the souls of the dead, we are the angels of the souls of the living. We aim to corrupt humans, ignite that which draws them to unforgivable sin.”

“Why?”

“I was getting to that - Hell, like Soul Society, needs souls. We require a steady flow of corrupt souls to continue to function. So I and others like me come out here to push souls toward corruption so that when they die, they quickly degenerate into Hollows and are slain by you, thus sending them into our world. And before you go and call me a bad guy, remember that it's a balance - a necessary mutual dependence for the survival of all worlds.”

“Mutual dependence? Then how come we don't know about you guys?”

“Because my job doesn't interfere with your job - I mess with the living, you deal with the dead. Your God, though, knows of us, since He attempts to keep the souls of the living away from corruption and eternal damnation. However, He cannot do anything to us, otherwise that would upset the balance. You get that?”

“So why haven't we been able to detect you little bastards up until now?”

“I'm losing my ability to hide myself during the day.”

“Why?”

“I did something rather unbecoming of an angel, so I'm losing my abilities as one.”

“And what'll you become once you've lost everything?”

“Something similar to you - a shinigami. I only lose my abilities as an angel - I don't lose my abilities dealing with my own reiatsu.”

“Huh… So what did you do that was so unbecoming?”

Ichigo chuckled grimly. “I saved a pretty girl from a man I corrupted - saved her from being raped, tortured, and killed. I believe that's what humans call a conscience. After that, I lost the will to corrupt, thus I lost my ability to corrupt. I'm down to killing, healing, and hiding.”

“How're you allowed to heal but not save people?”

“It wasn't necessarily the act of saving her - it was undoing the corruption I had caused in the man's soul. I'm not supposed to use the time manipulation for things like that. I'm really not supposed to heal people, either, but I'm already in the shit-hole. Like it really matters anymore.”

“So why're you showing yourself to me? If you just evade us for long enough, won't you just be able to hide yourself again once you're not an angel anymore?”

Ichigo sighed and averted his eyes for a moment before he was gone. When he reappeared, he was nose-to-nose with the shinigami. “You remind me of the pretty girl,” he whispered, brushing his lips against Renji's, before he was gone again.

Renji was frozen in surprise. What the hell just happened?!