Contagion

I am thinking of renaming one of my old stories (The Wrath of Adelais: Katerina's Story) to Contagion. I still have get the story rounded out itself.

Also, I made a second revision of a Breaking Through the Storm chapter (chapter 2). I started to just change bits and pieces of the original document, but I decided that this one needed way too much work for me to do that. I loosely followed the same guide lines/event time line as the old chapter, I just wrote it differently.

Original chapter 2 is in this link. But technically, this chapter 2 isn't even the original. It was the rewrite of an even older version, which means I used to be EVEN W O R S E at writing. lol Here is what I wrote:

Disclaimer: I don’t own Bleach.

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“Ichigo!” Sayuri cried out into the darkness. The intense pressure from Ichigo’s reiatsu seemed to lift considerably, which likely meant that he was severely injured. Sayuri made several twists and turns around the street corners of Karakura Town with only the light from the street lights to allow her to see, which were few and far in between. She followed the source of her brother’s power to finally find him in a dimly lit alley behind the bakery, plastered to a wall with some unknown green substance that left only his head uncovered. Zangetsu lay on the ground in shikai form a few feet below him.

“Ichigo! How the hell did you get up-”

“Behind you, Sayuri!” With a groan, she turned around to see a large Hollow crawling toward the two of them. It resembled an overgrown tarantula with a seafoam green body and two long, narrow slits on its mask to reveal two malicious, golden eyes. Its resonant roar nearly deafened her, and the vulgar smell of the Hollow left Sayuri with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“Oi, dragon breath! Over here!” She sprinted off into another section of town, to lead the Hollow away from her brother. When she was far enough away, she immediately spun around to face the beast that had been so closely trailing behind her. Raising her zanpakuto over her head and bellowing a battle cry, she struck the hollow’s mask head on. During any other battle with low level Hollow, her zanpakuto would slice through the mask like a knife through butter. This time, however, the metal of her blade merely sparked as it clashed with the mask. The strange phenomenon hurled her back into a light pole, making her hit her head. The Hollow leapt at the chance and swatted at her with its claws on its front two legs. She quickly scrambled away from it, but it caught her forehead and left a long cut.

Sayuri grew increasingly frustrated with the battle, which caused her reiatsu to spike. Bright sparks emanated from her body and surrounded her with a yellow glow. “Strike from the heavens, Rai-Joshin!” The ordinary katana morphed into a double-handed broadsword with a black and gold hilt and a long golden ribbon flowing from the end of the hilt, sparking with electricity. The beast dodged her attacks, one after the other, until she’d had enough. When she finally made contact with one of the legs, effectively cutting it, the Hollow locked everyone of its bones tight and became bound to the asphalt below it by an invisible force. A green liquid similar to the substance covering Ichigo a few blocks away squirted out from the cut she made, but she shielded her face with her sleeve before any made contact with her skin —a good judgment on her part, as the liquid immediately solidified into an insoluble substance on her shihakusho.

Sayuri became completely and utterly fed up with the beast. As she filled up with rage, her reiatsu began to swirl and spark around her as if she were a hurricane. “Shockwave!” she commanded, and her zanpakuto sent a wave of electricity straight into the center of the Hollow’s mask, completely obliterating it. The Hollow screeched as it disapparated in thin air.

When she reached Ichigo, who was still stuck to the wall like the prey of a spider, she was still sparking from irritation. “Well it’s about damn time!” Ichigo rolled his eyes. He twisted and contorted his body in an attempt to loosen the disgusting substance that pinned him to the wall. “Get me out of here!” he said after having no luck.

“No. I think I’m just going to leave you there.”

“You can’t do that! Wait! Sayuri!” he called out to her as she began to walk away. “HEY! Get back here!!!” She drew herself up short.

“Well maybe there’s something I can do. I mean, it may not be ethical, but it will certainly get you down from there.” A playfully evil look over came her face, and she brandished her zanpakuto, once again in its sealed form. “Just hold still, Ichi-nii.”

“Wait, wait! Nevermind! Please don’t!” he panicked. With a few motions, she cut around him in an outline and let him fall to the ground. What was he thinking? That she’d cut his skin off?

Sayuri helped her brother up, and they walked home together in silence —that is, until Ichigo noted that her small stature made her a suitable cane for him to walk with, at which point she flipped him on his back and left him to get home by himself.

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The next day in class, Sayuri worked with Tatsuki, Nayuki, and Orihime as they formulated a plan for their science project. It was a requirement for the school science fair, but only the members of the science club had really interesting projects. One group had been working on transforming a colony of bacteria to fluoresce under UV light on an arabinose agar plate, while another attempted to demonstrate synaptic plasticity in the nervous system of a sea slug. Orihime cheerily narrated her vision of a 300 foot tall robot with a built in flame thrower, tank treads, and a maximum speed of 200 miles per hour. Tatsuki and Sayuri politely told her that while they thought it was a good idea, none of them would like to be arrested for creation of an illegal weapon, and no, painting a picture of Chappy the Rabbit on the side of the machine would not make it any less intimidating. Personally, Sayuri hated science, math, and all the thinking that came with the two subjects.

Periodically throughout the day, Sayuri kept feeling like there was a strange presence outside the school grounds. After school, as she walked home by herself, she sensed an unfamiliar reiatsu lurking behind every corner. When she was almost to the Kurosaki clinic, her phone beeped with another Hollow alert. She swallowed a gikongan and instructed it to go straight home, then took off in the direction of the familiar sound of a Hollow screeching and howling.

“Ooh, he heh... A little girl! You smell like Shinigami. I like the smell of Shinigami,” an eerie voice spoke from close behind her.

“Strike from the heavens, Rai-Joshin!” She said as she whipped around to face the monster. Before she could react, the Hollow took a large bite out of her left shoulder. She winced, but she felt no pain. In fact, it felt like the Hollow had injected a local anesthetic into her arm because she couldn’t feel her left arm at all.

“I am NOT little!” While it was still in close proximity, she stabbed its mask and sent a shockwave straight into it. The mask shattered, and the hollow vanished, but the lack of feeling in Sayuri’s arm did not. Soon the feeling started to spread throughout her entire body, and the last thing she remembered before passing out was a dog barking as it chased a stray cat down the street.

Breaking Through the Storm: Reboot?

Hello, hello. Remember me? I'm that one fanfiction author who wrote a crap ton for Bleach/Hitsugaya. lol

I looked at an old chapter of BTtS today and decided to rewrite it. You know, how I write now. Not when I was 16. (five years ago) These are the results. I still find the content to be lame in itself, but according to one of my friends, this flows a lot better than the original.

I am not sure as to if I'll continue on with this project. I like the idea of the story. I just have no interest in starting from scratch, hence why I just rewrote the chapter with the same things happening, just different style.

I will link to the original to show the difference. Click here.
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DISCLAIMER: I don't own Bleach.

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The song of the cicadas in the warm, early summer began to lull Sayuri to sleep as she walked home from soccer practice with her best friend. She stretched her arms behind her and involuntarily let out a loud yawn.

"You shouldn't stay up so late, Sayuri," Nayuki scolded her.

"I can't help it. I didn't sleep well last night," Sayuri defended. Sleep had not only eluded her last night, but also many nights before. She could blame the lack of sleep on Kon as much as she wanted, but you cannot blame a talking stuffed lion for your mind’s inability to switch “off.” She rubbed her eyes wearily and became slightly thrilled as she saw the street sign that meant she was only a block and a half from home. She could feel a growing soreness in her calves and knees -- a sign that she had neglected her stretching after practice.

“Seriously, if you keep going on like this, your lack of sleep will start to interfere with your health. We can’t have you getting sick when we are so close to the playoffs.” Nayuki poked Sayuri’s cheek as she spoke. She always loved to poke at her like she were a child, mostly due to Sayuri being about 20 centimeters shorter. [1] “Not to mention that exams are coming up soon. If you don’t pull yourself together-”

“Ahhh, no reason to worry about me!” Sayuri interrupted her and swatted her best friend’s hand away, slightly irritated.

“If you’re sure...”

“This is my street. I’ll see you tomorrow, Nayuki,” she dismissed Nayuki’s concern.

"Bye, Sayuri! Tell Ichigo I said hi!" The taller girl waved.

Sayuri opened the door to the house just to dodge a flying kick from her father. “Sayuriiiiiiiiii!!!” Isshin cried at the top of his lungs, only to slam into the front door. Sayuri learned when she entered junior high that all of Isshin’s attacks were scheduled in a specific way according to day of the week, but it took a few hundred kicks to teach her that Fridays were either roundhouse or flying kicks.

"What kind of parent tries to kick their child in the face?” She glared at him and twisted his ears, effectively reducing him to tears. “Stupid old man.”

"Sayuri, my child, I'm afraid there is nothing left for me to teach you," Isshin sobbed proudly and crawled to the giant poster of Masaki in the entryway. "You make your mother and I so proud," he said as he caressed his wife’s laminated cheek. Sayuri really wished he would move that giant poster to a room where she didn’t have to witness him talk to it, like it was a real person. She headed for the kitchen, grabbed a few cookies, and carefully avoided the old man still sobbing to the giant poster on her way to her room. As she began to take her off her sweaty shirt from practice, she was surprised by Kon.

"Yuri-nee!” Sayuri screamed.

“KON! What are you DOING?!” she put her shirt back down and threw him out the door, into the wall across from her bedroom.

“I'm so glad you're home!” he continued despite having the door slammed in his face. “You wouldn't believe what happened. First I tried to run away because Yuzu dressed me up and then the neighbors cat nearly ripped off my arm and then- HEY! Ouch! What do you think you’re doing?!” Sayuri hoped it was Yuzu picking him up to have a tea party with her.

A knock came on Sayuri’s door. “Come in,” she grumbled. She grew irritated when Ichigo walked in the door holding the struggling stuffed lion by the face.

“Does this belong to you?”

“No.” She looked up at him through her bangs, mentally taking note that she needed to get her hair cut soon. Her long, orange hair had grown down to her back since she had last cut it.

“You really shouldn’t be making such a fuss by arguing with him,” Ichigo pointed out. After all, there is nothing stranger than a talking toy, other than someone actually talking back to said toy. Sayuri and Ichigo were already a suspicious pair to many, given their frequent absences and strangely having to run away to take care of some unknown business so often.

“Well maybe he shouldn’t come flying at me when I’m changing!” She glared at the toy.

“Still, you should be more careful.” Sayuri mentally chuckled at Ichigo trying to be the logical one. Suddenly, her phone began to beep. The screen said, “Hollow,” and she immediately grabbed her ginkongan dispenser from the top of her dresser.

"Are you sure you can take care of this one by yourself?” Ichigo caught her hand with the dispenser before she could pop one of the small, round pills in her mouth.

“Stop worrying about me, Ichi-nii! I don’t understand why you think I can’t take care of myself!” Sayuri pulled her hand back away from him, but in doing so, she lost her balance and stumbled onto her bed.

“That’s why, idiot.” His eye twitched in annoyance. He pushed her head back so she would lay down. “Sleep.”

“Don’t do that! It makes me dizzy.”

Ichigo pressed his Shinigami representative badge to his chest, and immediately his body appeared to lose consciousness as his soul form emerged. He jumped out of the window and quickly ran off into the alley, becoming swallowed by dark night. A few minutes later, Sayuri felt the floor shift and saw her furniture shake. Ichigo's reiatsu skyrocketed.

“Why isn’t he done yet?” she thought. As Sayuri mused the possibilities of what could have happened, something rumbled up the steps of the house. It almost sounded like the sound of thunder, but unfortunately, not to her surprise, Isshin burst through the door.

"Sayuri! Sayuri! Are you alright? I'm sorry Daddy left you up here all alone! You can come downstairs with Yuzu, Karin, and I if you're scared!"

"Get out, old man,” she said and kicked him, literally, out of the room. The intensity of her brother’s reiatsu had not yet let up, which began to worry her. Against his instructions, she grabbed the ginkongan dispenser again and swallowed one, to change into her own Shinigami form. A spark lit up her brown eyes, and she jumped out the window toward the source of the concentrated reiatsu. Sayuri became filled with the fighting spirit as she ran into the darkness.

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1. Sayuri is roughly 153 centimeters tall. That’s 5’ by the Imperial system. That makes Nayuki about 173 centimeters, or about 5’9” -about the same height as Ichigo.