Dispirited Away (Bleach, Chaos Gacha, OC) (Patreon)

“This saba is exquisite, darling,” my father complimented, turning his beaming smile over to his wife. Fujimura Sora was a dark-eyed, balding man who looked like he was on the wrong side of forty. Not quite chubby, but certainly in the sort of shape that came from largely working a sedentary municipal job.

Still, he was a kind man and absolutely in love with my mom, to an almost sickening degree. There were worse things to have in your life than parents who were positively in love with each other. That wasn’t what kept me quiet, though, as I poked absentmindedly at my food.

My silence had much harder to swallow origins.

His wife beamed right back at him. “Really? I was trying out a new method of grilling, but I wasn’t quite sure how it worked out.”

“Excellently, I’d say.”

“Oh, you flatterer,” she smiled, batting her eyelashes coquettishly at the man. Fujimura Kotoha, my mother, was in the same breath as my father, exceptionally mundane.

That wasn’t meant in a bad way, to be clear. She was a housewife, one who worked hard to maintain our family home and ensure that the two men in her life came back to somewhere clean, organized, and occupied from their day’s labor. It didn’t matter if it was the work that my father did or the actual schoolwork that occupied most of my time.

She was just dedicated to it. Her hair was a much lighter shade of brown, likely where I’d gotten it from, tied back in a neat and tidy bun. With grey eyes, like the color of river stones, I’d also generally leaned toward her in regard to my looks more than my father. Physically, she was about how you expected a woman in her forties to appear.

“What about you, Akito?” My father asked, glancing toward where I was barely picking at the food with my chopsticks. “You’ve scarcely touched your meal.”

Glancing up, I could see both of them at the very least mildly concerned at the fact that I wasn’t scarfing everything down as quickly as possible. Considering how I usually went at my mom’s cooking, they were somewhat right in this case to worry a little bit. Though in this case, I did my best to give them a wan smile.

“My stomach’s a little upset,” I lied, dancing around the truth of the matter. “I apologize.”

“No need to say sorry,” my mother assured me. “It’s hardly unnatural for someone’s stomach to be upset every once in awhile.”

She was a good person and thus had the fortunate tendency to look at the best in people, rather than inspecting me too closely for anything else that might have been suspicious. I appreciated that, because it kept me from having to come up with excuses on the matter. Trying to explain something that didn’t have a logical, sane explanation.

Like the fact that I was seeing things and had been all day.

“May I be excused to my room? I think I might need to rest this off.”

“Naturally. Do let us know if it’s more serious,” my guileless father nodded, the implicit trust extended my way already making my gut squirm at my deception. Until I knew what was going on, though, I didn’t want to burden them with this weirdness.

Better I figure it out on my own before I come to them with it. That way, we could try to make a plan for it.

Giving them smiles, I inclined my head as I made my absence from the table. Their eyes were on me as I left, though more filled with concern than something like suspicion. Which was fine. I just needed to be in the privacy of my own room to figure something out on my lonesome.

Entering into my bedroom and closing the door behind me, I caught a glimpse of my body once more. 

My features for the most part wouldn’t draw much in the way of attention. Light brown hair that could generously be called fluffy, combed and brushed into some measure of compliance. Grey eyes that were darker than my mother’s, if only by a hair. Features that weren’t quite sharp, though I was on the lean and lanky side, rather than having built up much in the way of muscle.

If there was one way people had to describe me, it’d probably be singularly unoffensive. Boring, hardly someone that would rock the boat in any real way. That was the way I’d always liked it, because it was comfortable. Believe it or not, but I was generally the type of person that liked things that way. 

It helped that I was also the new kid, as my parents had moved the family to Karakura Town for work opportunities, and I’d started at the new high school as the year rang in. And then… I had pretty much just kind of existed. Made some acquaintances from school, joined the go-home club, and mostly headed back to do homework and play video games.

When it came to the life I lived, the best way that I could describe it was aimless. There weren’t any great aspirations I had or outstanding wants or desires. Maybe insofar as I just desired to live a comfortable life and ensure that my parents were taken care of, but past that…?

There wasn’t much I’d been craving. Maybe, and perhaps quietly, I’d wanted some excitement. Something to break me out of the day-to-day humdrum that had become my regular mundanity. An adventure, exposure to some grand prophecy, or some madcap, manic journey straight out of the manga and JRPG I so cherished.

But this was the real world. If there were new worlds to conquer, it’d likely be after my death, when the technology had advanced enough for space travel to be inexpensive. Or at the very least, profitable enough to push people exploring once again. There were no new horizons to go venture off to, and frankly, I wasn’t smart enough to be the guy to innovate.

In most respects, I lived a very normal life and was more than happy with it. That fervent, quiet desperation that I’d come to grips with was shuffled into a box, in the back of my heart, and set to the side. From what I understood, most men had that sort of craving. They wanted to go be the hero, to save the girl and the world by that same measure.

Eventually all of them found themselves ground down by reality and forced to accept it for what it was. I was just ahead of the curve.

Or so I’d thought, until I started to evidently hallucinate from this morning onwards. When I opened my eyes, I opened them to blocky, white text in my vision that’d stubbornly stuck there, no matter where I looked away.

[CHAOS GACHA ACTIVATED. ROLL STARTING THREE GOLDEN TICKETS?]

Someone more hasty might have leapt for the opportunity immediately. I had bigger fish to fry, like my initial disorientation at the beginning of the day. This was the first time that I’d actually gotten an opportunity to sit down and come to grips with it, or at least trigger… whatever was about to happen in relative peace and quiet.

Whether or not it’d actually give me any hints as to what was going on, I didn’t have the faintest clue. What I did know for sure was that it was my best bet at getting some kind of answer. That, and it’d clear up my vision from the text that’d been bugging me all day.

“Screw it,” I sighed, rolling my shoulders to pop the joints. “Let it spin.”

With that mental confirmation made, there wasn’t any drastic confirmation of what I’d done. No lights from the heavens or sound effects. Just a moment where the world twitched, as three results appeared before me. Just long enough for me to read each of them before vanishing as quickly as they’d arrived.

The knowledge of them remained inside of me, though. Impossible to ignore, like they were carved in stone, wormed into my grey matter. I didn’t have that much time to actually think about how strange that was, before I actually had to contend with the knowledge itself.

[Golden Fist]

|Uncommon Ability|

Wreathes the users fists in Holy Light, empowering their unarmed strikes and dealing greater damage against Dark and Infernal beings.

With a thought, I knew that if I so willed it, I could make my hands glow. Not just with some sort of soft, meaningless light, but Holy Light, and there was a difference. An important one, even if I didn’t know why, outside of it being useful against so-called Dark and Infernal beings.

As much as I’d like to interrogate the implications of the ability, though, the second result was already coming into view.

[Exorcist]

|Rare Trait|

You are an Exorcist, an agent of the Heavenly Realm, a profession specializing in destroying spiritual beings and demons with the Holy attribute. The power of your Holy, Spirit and Light abilities is enhanced. You can also sense nearby Infernal and Spirit entities to give them a peaceful passing or a painful eviction from the material realm.

The difference between when the Trait took root and after couldn't be overstated. I thought there’d been a divide in my mind and existence with the unnatural, unusual knowledge and capacity that was filling my skull ever since how to activate my first ability had slotted into place. Obviously, my conception of what was truly bizarre wasn’t advanced enough yet.

All I could describe it as was like I’d been living my entire life with one eye closed. A veil shrouded over my senses, the ones beyond the typical five everyone knew about. Touch, taste, hearing, smell, and sight. There was something beyond that boundary, an immaterial realm that was just outside of my reach.

Or it had been until I’d become an [Exorcist].

Now, I could feel signatures, further out from our family home. Resonances that implicitly I knew were spirits, the restless dead, even further. How and why I knew it, I was going to put entirely onto the Trait. Yet there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in me of what they were. Briefly, on the periphery of my range, there was something even stranger that’d brushed against.

Not a spirit exactly, even if it did feel like it shared some commonalities with them. Instead, it felt like something hungry, restless, and on the prowl, as it moved on, not seemingly paying any real attention to me. On the move, as it were, blessedly speaking. That was good, if only because I didn’t have the faintest clue what the hell that decidedly infernal thing was.

Just that it was wrong, a kneejerk presumption and appellation placed on something. Some violation on an ontological level, compared to the presences of what I now recognized as spirits, moving around here and there. A perversion of a natural order that I had been so abruptly introduced to. 

Shook as I was, I barely paid any attention to the last of the entries, as it flashed across my vision.

[Kiriha]

|Elite Familiar|

Tsugumomo - Kiriha is an Obi Tsugumomo, a spiritual creature born from an object that developed a soul over time. As a Tsugumomo, Kiriha can bond with an owner and allow them to wield her. Her powers are that of being an obi that the user can freely manipulate and shape, the obi itself possessing substantial strength, being able to be woven into layered shields, drills, and even armor over the user, etc. The toughness and strength of the obi scale with the user's power level. Due to her nature as a Tsugumomo, her powers scale with the level of power her user possesses.

This one was new, insofar as it seemed as if it gave me a person. Or a thing, maybe. I didn’t know if there was much of a difference; from the way that it was being described, it was some kind of spiritual creature that combined the qualities of the two. Some other element seemed to be that it was from something, but I didn’t know if I was reading too much into it.

All I knew was that if it was a Familiar, it had to answer to me, right? Whether or not that was true, it felt like it was the right guess, based off some unknown intuition with this weird system of mine. What was stranger, and more ominous, was the text that appeared in front of me next.

[STARTING ROLLS DISPERSE. ROLL STARTING CURSE FOR REWARDS?]

Unlike the others, where it was waiting to be activated, this felt more like an offer. Again, it was a guess more than something grounded in fact or hard understanding of the situation. We were so far beyond the pale of what I was easily comfortable with that I couldn’t say one way or another whether or not I was reading too much into this.

All I knew was that I’d felt a living embodiment of hunger drift past the range of what I could sense. And I didn’t want to see what would happen if I was caught unprepared by it.

“... Roll it.”

A great and immense wheel dominated my consciousness for a few brief seconds. On it were those ticker marks you’d see in cheesy game shows, where the contestant would spin on the wheel, as options flew by. In my case, many of the options were less than desirable, ranging from things that sounded as bad as infertile to brand of sacrifice.

Eventually, the wheel began to come to a close, as it settled on one option specifically.

[Unfamiliar]

|Severity 15|

Your familiars no longer come with the absolute loyalty and obedience they are supposed to have. When you summon a familiar, they know they were summoned to serve you, but what they think about that is up to them.

|Resolve: Acquire the ability Collaring or Burden of Servitude, Expert level or higher taming, or other such abilities and traits that allow you to enforce loyalty or obedience.|

[MAJOR CURSE - REWARD: 1x GOLD CHOICE TICKET.]

[CHOOSE BETWEEN ABILITIES, ITEMS, TRAITS, SKILLS, AND FAMILIARS.]

There was a joke to be made somewhere there. Specifically about whether I’d kind of walked straight into this. Going from, well, talking about how a Familiar at least would be bound to listen and protect me, and then immediately getting something that would ensure that no longer was the case.

Was this thing sentient? Or was my luck just that bad? Maybe a combination of the two, to be put in this situation. No matter what it was, the ball was in my court when it came to deciding which of the provided categories I was going to choose. Familiar was, obviously, out, at least when it wasn’t a category I had no control over.

I’d already seen what Abilities and Traits could do for me, though something made me question if [Exorcist] hadn’t inadvertently put me in more danger than I would have been otherwise. The only real points of reference I lacked here was what you could get out of Skills, and Items. A physical thing would have been something I’d need to hide, so maybe not something I’d have to explain away.

While I wanted to tell my parents about all of this weirdness, I wanted to at least have more understanding of it myself before I tried to explain it. My dad, bless his heart, would want to do something, but what exactly could you do when you couldn’t see the threats that were at your door? At a certain point, being aware was more of a danger to you if you were stubborn enough to get involved.

I’ve gotten off track.

For the moment, I figured the thing to take would be a Skill. With that choice made, it didn’t take very long before the actual fruit of my efforts appeared before me. Along with a massive and sudden infusion of knowledge, enough to make my head ache with all of the unfamiliar information resting inside of me.

“Out of everything, why do I know how to sew now?”

[Adept Seamstering]

|Rare Skill|

You are an Adept Seamster, having considerable skill in working on tailoring, designing, mending, and creating garments and items out of flexible and soft materials like leather, cloth, fabric, silk, etc. You can work well with most materials and fix and alter even complex garments and armors and create clothing that would be acceptable by the standards of nobles or create soft/flexible armor good enough to be used in warfare. You can also alter the shape and form of items made of appropriate material below Rare level without making them weaker or having them lose their effectiveness.

I’d wanted a means to defend myself and was given the means to make an exceptional living as a fashion designer. Thank you, Chaos Gacha; I now understood your game. It seemed almost offensively fitting for someone who would be partnered or wielding an entity made out of living fabric.

All of this was, ultimately, some rather pointless bitching. I was putting off the inevitable, as if trying to dance around the situation or keep going in circles would be better. There wasn’t anything to do but summon her and hope that she was at least somewhat rational. Weren’t spiritual entities supposed to be enlightened beings?

… Yeah, I didn’t even believe that when I thought it.

Without further ado, I let Kiriha out of that hollow space inside of me. Though instead of a fully formed person dumping out, it was instead reams and reams of fabric. An obi, patterned with Sakura flowers, even smelling faintly of them, in the pocketed style. I’d seen them before, but even now, I’d have to admit that this specific specimen was a masterwork.

“Beautiful.”

“Thou art possessed of a good eye.”

I practically jolted when the pile of fabric spoke right before beginning to change before my eyes, growing upwards into the shape of a person. A young woman, maybe my age, certainly a teenager, but of a decidedly indeterminate age that made it precisely hard to pin down. Dressed in a flower-patterned kimono with an obi and wearing tabi with sandals, she was an inhuman beauty beyond what she was wearing.

Long, luscious, silky blue hair streamed down, while two red, gleaming eyes looked down at me with no small amount of interest and fascination. On either side of her, though, I could see pointed ears poking out. If someone wasn’t paying attention, maybe they could write it off as merely some kind of weird, anomalous series of birth defects.

To my senses, though, she was anything but human.

She was dangerous, that much I could make out relatively clearly. A spiritually potent entity that made anything else I saw that evening seem… middling, in terms of lethality or efficacy. Looking at her, I gulped thickly.

“Hey.”

Her lips quirked into a smirk as she crossed her arms and raised her chin at me. “This new servant of mine isn’t very eloquent, it seems.”

Those words made me blink. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

Tilting her head to the side, she didn’t seem to understand my confusion. “Thou art my new servant? What’s there to be confused about?”

“How about hello, a proper introduction, uh, I dunno, likes, dislikes, wishes for the future…” If it worked for Kakashi, it probably would work for us.

She clicked her tongue, rolling her eyes at me. “Very well. You gaze upon Kiriha, Tsugumomo, and the scourge of Amasogi everywhere. In lieu of the destruction that I would have suffered, I chose instead to sojourn here. You may say thank you.”

“I’m not going to do that,” I immediately stated. “But I will say thank you for coming. My name is Fujimura Akito.”

“... Hmm.” Rubbing her chin, Kiriha tilted her head to the side in mild confusion. “Thy spiritual energies seem rather robust for a human.”

“Is that a good or bad thing?”

“It’s above all else, abnormal, and speaks well of your prospective nature to bond with me,” she admitted, smiling with a certain smug satisfaction. “Very well. I tentatively grant thee the privilege of being my servant.”

“What does that actually entail, actually? Because I’m pretty sure there are ghosts or something out there, and I was kind of counting on you to help defend my family.”

“Well,” she paused, hands on her hips. “For starters, thou must ensure I have an adequate supply of food and snacks.”

“Doable.”

“I must also be treated with the respect owed to me. Especially adding -sama when you say my name.”

“... Let’s come back to that provision later.”

“And most importantly, care for and cherish me.”

“I mean…” I trailed off. “I don’t know what’s out there or what’s actually waiting for me now that I’ve been spiritually awakened. But a lot of that just sounds like treating you like a member of my family. I can do that.”

Beggars could not exactly be choosers. I’d always assumed stuff like spirits, monsters, and magic was fake, but apparently my daydreams had a lot more basis in reality than I’d originally thought. I didn’t know what to believe, but I was willing to give a lot more credence to those stories now.

The amount of things that I didn’t know could fill a library. What I did know, though, was the fact that I’d need someone to watch my back. Was having an item spirit of dubious provenance my first pick? No. But it’d have to do.

“Then we shall get along splendidly! Ooh, I’ll have someone new to train up as my Exorcist, pliable and ready for all of the techniques that Kanaka taught me.” She began to rub her hands together, exuding an almost sinister aura as she did so. “My first command is to head to the store to acquire snacks. Especially pudding.”

“We actually have snacks here.”

She gave me a meaningful look. “Do you have pudding, though?”

“No,” I admitted, sighing after the look that entered her eyes. “I’ll go get some.”

The things I did to keep my family safe from theoretical evil spirits. When I revealed all of this to my parents, I hoped they appreciated the sacrifices that their son was making on their behalf! And reimbursed me for what I suspected this voracious monster was going to end up doing to my allowance.

Making excuses to my parents about why I was running to the convenience store took a bit, but they accepted the notion that I wanted to get some fresh air. Which had the benefit of being true, though not the entire truth, as I hastily made my way there and back. Only to find her messing around with my PS2, lazily learning the controls for Armored Core 2.

At least she had good taste.

Of course, that didn’t stop her from hitting pause and looking up at me with interest as I arrived. “Ah! Mine servant returns. Did you get everything I desired?”

“Yes,” I sighed, carrying the bag in and opening it up, only for her to take it from my hands and start rifling through it.

“Is it here…” She trailed off, eyebrows furrowing together in thought. “Ah! Yes, it is.” Plucking out a pudding pack, she looked longingly at it in that moment.

“You’re really into your snacks.”

“Life is meant to be lived, Akito,” she said, making me squirm at the use of my given name without any honorifics. It was one thing to have my parents do that. Another to have someone I didn’t know very well doing the same.

“Let’s just stick to Fujimura-san for now.”

“Why?”

“We don’t know each other that well!” I protested, pointing at her. “I don’t know what a Tsugumomo is, or why you’re here, or why any of this is happening.”

Plopping down on the edge of my bed, I couldn’t help but continue ranting. As if all of this weirdness had been boiling out of me. “There’s so much I don’t know, and in comes you, just…bowling over everything.”

I’d been half-expecting her to blow up on me. In fact, I could see the moment where she thought about doing so, as her left eyebrow twitched, and her hands clenched. Then the moment passed, and the anger faded, replaced by something I hadn’t expected to see on her features.

Understanding.

“While I will not apologize for being myself, I will concede that this must be rather hectic for someone who isn’t as familiar with the spiritual side of the world.”

“That almost sounded like an apology.”

“It wasn’t.”

“I’ll still take it as one to make myself feel better.”

“Do as you wish,” she shrugged, cracking open a pudding cup and beginning to greedily eat what was inside. The look on her face as she ate was rapturous, but eventually she did run out of it to eat. Before she reached for another, Kiriha noticed I was giving her a meaningful look and paused. “Ah. We were on explanations, were we not?”

“We were.”

“Then should ask what you know of spirits to begin with. That’ll help me determine where I need to begin.” Awaiting my answer, the glutton reached for a bag of chips.

“Being truthful? I literally know so little, and I’ve probably forgotten most of the folklore that’s tied up in what a tsugumomo even is.” I remembered stories about spirits that could form in items that were cared for and kept over the generations, but again, they were just that. A little folklore that was brought up in some of our texts, and not even remotely mentioned in any serious context.

“Everyone knows those stories are obviously fake and merely ancient humanity’s misunderstanding of natural phenomena.”

I was going to strangle whoever thought the age of reason was a good idea. No, it wasn't; the world apparently was still very much home to supernatural entities! And they’d left us all unprepared by trying to convince your average bozo that everything could be explained by science.

Chewing, she swallowed and continued to speak with as much bravado and bluster as she’d demonstrated so far. “Then allow me to enlighten you. Tsugumomo are a type of Tsukumogami. Now, effectively, we were objects used over generations that gained a sliver of the life force and soul of the myriad people that have used us. This allowed me, and all others like me, to develop a soul of our own. ”

“Theoretically, any tool or object could become one of my kin. Given the requirement of so many years and generations to be used without being discarded, though… Well, it’s not an easy process.”

I imagined it might have been a process that was more common in the past. In our modern world, where mass market commercialization and globalization had made getting new things so much easier, there wasn’t the same need to pass things down for generations. That seemed sad on some level but made sense with the passing of the ages.

Everything has its season. Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn’t had to suffer the loss of a loved one, like a pet, or family member.

“Because of the gradual nature of this process, we’re far more stable and rational than our ill-minded peers, the amasogi,” she explained, looking all the more prideful, despite the chip crumbs I spotted on her fingers. “This process also allows us to basically function as a human does. The body follows the soul, after all, and we are of a kinship to humanity.”

“So, like, you guys can have kids or something!”

“Quite! All of my womanly parts work quite well,” Kiriha agreed, nodding sagely. “Would you like to see?”

The blush that came to my face was unbidden, but I at least managed to hold her amused gaze readily enough. “N-Not needed, no!”

“If you say so~.”

Clearing my throat, I tried to get the conversation back to the topic at hand. “So, like, what can you actually do? The gacha system that brought you here gave me the broad strokes, but I’d like to hear it from you.”

“I’m the strongest there is,” she bluntly stated. “So you’ve done well to make me your mistress."

“Partner,” I corrected.

Kiriha continued as if she didn’t hear me. “One of my past partners, one you have much to live up to, was the inventor of many of these. She was a true prodigy in every respect, but the Weave techniques that she taught me require a partner in tune with me in every respect. One willing to put in the work to train to the utmost.”

I’d already figured that I was going to have to lose my cozy little life after all of this. Scratching at my chin, I gave her a sheepish smile. “Trust me, I’ve got every intention of working hard at this sort of thing. It’s my life at stake if there really are things going bump in the night.”

“Originally I might have said you have the threat of amasogi, but I don’t feel the sensation of the Curse’s miasma anywhere near here,” she commented. “Not that’ll stop me from wringing every drop of potential out from you. I won’t be wielded by someone so inept.”

Yeah. I was about to be absolutely demolished in the coming days and weeks; I could feel it in my bones.

“I’ll try to live up to your expectations.”

“See that you do.”

“Anyway, I’ve gotta go get cleaned up for tomorrow… and figure out getting my homework done. A good soak after all of this seems appropriate.”

She perked up. “I agree. A good bath is just what I feel like is in order.”

“I mean, I guess I can try to cover for you to take one?”

Kiriha looked at me in confusion. “What do you mean? We’ll just take one together.”

“... Pardon me?”

Living with this girl was going to end up killing me, I knew it.

Author’s Notes

Bleach is scary. It’s such a juggernaut and has such a famous, fervent following of fans that love it, and no matter what you do, you’re going to get people coming out of the woodwork saying that you’re doing something wrong. At the same time, I’ve always liked Bleach, despite being daunted by the sheer scope of it.

And if you wish to be relevant, you’ve got to have your own brand of bullshit to keep up with the most monstrous of threats in the verse. Ergo, the Chaos Gacha.

Kiriha may seem pushy, but I’ve actually toned her down slightly. Then again, her personality does change a little bit based on her partner. If they don’t take her shit, she’s actually kind of submissive. Certain things will remain the same, like her complete and utter shamelessness in terms of her body. Compared to what she does in the manga and anime, to someone who barely knows her, this shit is light.

I'm just trying out new concepts and excising ideas that exist in me. None of this is added to the main rotation, or really takes away from the time I work on my main stories. They're just little odds and ends that I do when I have some free time and I'm inspired. Lemme know what you guys thought of it.

As for other concepts, IdeasGuy has this story, Conquest, that I was kind of inspired by. Thought about doing something like that, not with a Saiyan, but some other powerful, fictional race. Maybe an Asgardian, or if a bog-standard version of their race(to start with). Briefly considered an Otsutsuki, before trying not to consider the enormous raft of nonsense I'd have to deal with for it. Much like Saiyans.