The Substitute Soul Reaper

The student wearing the hoodie collapsed in a dark hall way. As they tried to pull themselves back up from the floor his Xcution book fell onto the steel floor. He quickly picked it back up, before dragging his limping body through the corridor. As he did, it was almost as if his body itself was melting away but it barely retained its current form.

Once he reached the end of the corridor, the room got much larger, revealing multiple rows of large green tubes filled with a clear liquid. Inside them were multiple embryo like organisms as well as fragments of shattered hollow masks. At the centre of it all was a much larger blue tube with what seemed to be a control console Infront of it.

"Father...", they weakly called out.

A rather plain looking man wearing a lab coat quickly helped them up. As he did, he injected a black liquid into their neck with a syringe. This caused the hoodie to eventually regain both their form and strength, while not turning into a pile of goop. The man then spoke to them,

"You can relax now. Your back home."

"But I lost the hollow that you gave me..."

The man gently patted their head. "Don't worry, it's all to advance your growth in the end, P5. Did you at least manage to kill the substitute Soul Reaper girl??"

P5 looked up at the scientist and made a worrisome expression. He breathed heavily to contain his anger, and then smashed his fist against the nearby wall. P5 backed away in a fear a little, but the scientist quickly calmed themselves down.

"Are you okay? Mr. Tachibana?"

Tachibana struggled to breath, but quickly regained his composure.

"I'm fine. I just needed some time to re-adjust. I need to think about our next move after all."

1 month and 2 weeks after the death of Kai Kureno.

The missing Yukiko who hid her real body away as well as Mikoto whose memory of the incident had been erased were both able to return to normalcy. The records of the student that had caused the incident could not be found, and in fact any ID or data related to them was unidentifiable. It was almost as if they never existed. However, since that day the rumours about him spread quietly but quickly, and eventually people would refer back to him as Sakugo, the being that should not exist.

Yukiko sat down quietly at her desk while staring out of his window, into the skies above.

"I'm bored."

He looked over to his right and saw Yukiko across the classroom reading a book.

Despite her best attempts at covering her face, she was clearly bothered by something.

"So are you just going to keep ignoring me? Or are we finally going to talk again?", Mikoto said as he walked over to Yukiko.

She quickly tried to pack her bags and leave but Mikoto grabbed her hand before she could.

"I at least deserve an answer!"

Yukiko quickly slapped him with her other hand, and fled from the room. The other students who saw this whispered,

"What a tragic break up..."

"SHUT UP! THERE WAS NOTHING LIKE THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

A couple hours later

Yukiko walked out of the main schools building and saw Mikoto who was waiting for her while sitting on a staircase. As she walked past him, Yukiko continued to ignore his presence.

"Kai would hate to see you like this."

"Kai is dead. There is no use in talking about him."

Mikoto sighed heavily, "My memory from that day is strange? I can vividly remember Kai saving me from something, but at the same time I remember him leaving to go to the toilet just before the bomb went off and yet he still died anyway."

"So what are you trying to say? That he is still alive? The police found his body outside the school."

Mikoto grunted a little, "Does that matter? Just because he's dead, it isn't enough of a reason to get moappy. If he was right here with us then he would say: 'just get over it' or something like that."

"You-- wha? How can you, as his closest friend say something like that? There are other people out there suffering because of his death and you're acting as if nothing happened?"

Mikoto shook his head violently, before slapping his head. 

"I'm upset that he died too. All I did was move on from it quickly which is what he would've wanted us to do. Wherever his right now, I'm sure he that he living the life that he deserves, a happy one."

Yukiko made a uniquely upset face before quickly running off, leaving Mikoto to sigh by himself once again.

As she ran she began to recall her own old childhood memories.

Due to the nature of her father's job, Yukiko and her parents would often move homes.

Ever since her birth, she had moved houses approximately 24 times. Because of this, Yukiko was never able to make or get to know any 'true' friends. That was the case until she moved for the very last time...

A small Yukiko sat at the base of a single tree which rested on top of a large green hill. She quietly read a book by herself, waiting for the day that she would move yet again. None of the kids who played at the bottom of the hill took notice of her, and so the invisible barrier that existed between them had been formed.

This was her protection.

Well it was until a blue haired boy and his friend decided to join her.

"Wow, there was someone up here after all! Check this out Mikoto."

Yukiko averted her eyes away from the book, and looked at the two boys who approached her.

"What do you want?"

"Don't you get bored up here? Reading by yourself."

"Making connections isn't beneficial too me. After tomorrow, I'm going to move to another nearby city, so making friends isn't my priority right now."

Kai's face turned red as steam pumped out from his ears

 "Very big words."

Once he fell onto the grass, Mikoto poked his cheek with a stick he was carrying.

"Are you okay??"

This made Yukiko giggle a little.

Kai quickly cooled down while extending his hand, and at the same time although it was just a little, Yukiko extended out her own. When she gripped onto it, she suddenly found the substitute soul reaper badge in her hands. Although it was for a single second, she saw the black Haori of Kisuke Urahara.

"I gave up on him so quickly when he kept refusing... how can I call myself his friend after leaving him in that state for so long? I was to scared to go behind that door... in fact I was too scared to see him. I was scared of him blaming me that it was my fault that he died, and it's true. And even now I'm still failing him because of my fear. I don't want to leave him alone like that anymore, never again. I will save him this time even if he hates me for it."

A black fabric emerged from the badge, engulfing her whole body within its shadow.

Once Yukiko emerged, her human body fell behind her, leaving her soul which was now wearing the Shihakushō, as well as bearing a Zanpaktou.

She unsheathed her blade, and then jumped towards the horizon.