Chibis drawn by @Cantrona! Check out her Instagram for more amazing digital art. 

For returning readers: Hello! Follow Lilly into the Bleach-verse for some good ol' fashion fun.

For new readers: Hello! Hope you like an eccentric OC. The only thing you need to know about her is that she's been stuck in a cycle of rebirth for lifetimes. I will refrain from spoilers / crossovers though, so no worries about needing to read the other stories unless ya really want to!

Prologue is somber, but this will turn into a humor/parody/feel good soon enough.

Warnings: Standard warnings that apply to the Bleach anime. Additional warning that this OC will be strong. Given the power scales of the Bleach world, strength is a necessity if to play a role in the plot. And I don't want to nerf my baby, she's suffered enough.

Additional warning of potential AU. Due to Kubo's struggles in completing the series a lot of things were left open-ended, and unanswered. I've put together what I could for my best guesses, but he might come back years later and contradict everything I've written.

The final warning is that the first arc will skip forward in time quite a bit. I'm covering over two thousand years' worth of events and I simply don't have the muse-power to write that much crap out in detail.

Romance: Friendship and family are the focus of the story, but OC will flirt to make people uncomfortable. I do have a possible pairing(s?) in mind, but we'll see.

Genre: Parody/Humor/Family/Adventure... touch of tragedy for OC origins.

Side note: I do my best to keep everyone in character, but this is my first time writing a Bleach fic, and I've had more years with the anime characters than manga. Sorry if anyone comes across as OoC, and please let me know how you think they should be portrayed!

(◕▾◕✿)

She laid still on the cold floor of the kitchen, staring listlessly up at the ceiling. Her heart had stopped, and breath would no longer visit her. She knew she was going to die because it was not the first—nor last—time Death greeted her.

She was too old, and tired, now to fix her heart. She could if she pushed for it, she could force her heart to beat again if she truly desired, but it would only postpone the inevitable.

She was quite happy with her life and satisfied with what she had accomplished. Her spouse had passed on before her, and their children and grandchildren were old and well off enough that she was no longer needed.

She did the best she could, and she was satisfied with the world she was leaving behind.

She heard the garage door open up, the sound distant and hazy to her oxygen-deprived brain, and she knew it was one of her children coming to check on her. She felt bad at what they would see, but it was inevitable.

Besides, it was time to start another adventure with her friends who had already moved on ahead of her.

Always and always.

With the last of her strength, she forced a smile on her face and closed her eyes.

Death greeted her like an old friend.

It picked her up as her body fell to pieces. It pulled her into that comforting darkness and lulled her into a tranquil slumber.

And she slept.

And slept.

And slept.

And slept.

And slept.

(◕▾◕✿)

She saw white sand stretched out beneath a starless sky.

She understood now that she had moved on, she had entered a new world.

'Why am I here?'

She was neither Here (the living), nor There (the dead), though, but somewhere like the In Between.

She had no form, no fingers, or eyes, or limbs to stretch out. She was simply existing, simply watching, and trying to recall her memories.

She thought she ought to have a form, though.

With a stretch, a flex, a movement, she gave herself a nondescript body that was as fluid was water rolling down a mountainside.

This place was more Dead than Alive, a mix of the two, she realized.

There was spiritual energy in abundance, but unlike her, that energy felt cold and hollow. There was no warmth, no color, no life.

Death was everywhere in this world, and it showed in its desolate lands and empty skies.

That did not mean it was a bad place, though.

Death was not something to be feared—it only changed the story.

The old soul was a veteran of stories. She had lived through countless tales and lives in a variety of different forms. Animal, human, monster, plant, or anything in between. Reincarnation was not a rare thing—all souls experienced it, but she was one of the rarer ones that remembered, or at least was aware.

Time and age had little meaning to the soul, everything blurred together in a chaotic mess. Upon death, she normally slept until it was time to return to life. It was exceedingly rare for her to linger in the There. Death did not like to keep her.

'Why am I here?' She wondered.

The soul pondered this for quite some time, her mind foggy and hard to follow. She had not awoken in a place more There (dead) than Here (alive) in a while. She knew she normally had a body that would be born in the Here, not the There because the There did not have typical physical forms. The There was reserved for souls or beings of pure spiritual energy.

Even now with a technical form she was not truly There. She was stuck In Between one moment and the next, in between life and death, in between everything and nothing. Like a breeze caught in a curtain, unable through the window entirely but able to feel what waited on the other side.

The old soul moved slowly through the place of There.

Time was irrelevant for the dead. Now, Then, and Later all corresponded at once. A ball of string knotted together so tightly it was easy to be Now, Then, and Later at a small whim.

That particular place of There was an oddity, though.

A soul was meant to be Here, not There. Here it could live, grow, mature, and die again. There it was already dead. In Between it was neither alive nor dead.

That place was There, and the fact that the soul was not leaving There perturbed her. She was not meant to linger in the There.

Especially since she could feel Here, and another There.

'Three worlds tied together, existing in perfect balance. How odd.'

The soul had never come across such closely tied worlds—especially between Here and There.

Here and There should have an In Between, but there was no true In Between.

Which meant that with just a small stretch she could—

Her feet touched down on the pavement. Tall concrete buildings surrounded her with a blue, blue, blue sky above her. Noises, voices, humans bustled about her. They passed through her, beside her, everywhere around her.

She watched them and felt—

She felt memories come to her—

As her consciousness stretched out, bits and pieces of her memories flowed into her like a stream trickling down rocks.

She remembered the taste of air in the mountains; how cold and crisp it felt on her tongue.

She remembered the warmth of the sun on her skin; feeling it tingle pleasantly in a lazy afternoon.

She remembered the smell of wood burning; the ashy overlay that hung in the air and made her nose twitch.

She remembered the sound of that black ocean; the waves gently brushing against the soft white sand amidst the thousands of twinkling butterflies above.

She remembered love; grief; pain; joy; agony; hope.

The one without a body felt the memories come to her one by one, and she welcomed them with open arms.

She knew, in a sense, who she was.

But she did not know why she was there.

'Why am I here?'

(◕▾◕✿)

Then it came.

Oh, how kind its warmth was to her.

It was an old soul, like her, and it greeted her in passing.

She watched the soul dance around her, felt its warmth and love.

She reached out to touch it, to hold it, but it left There and went to the place More There Than Here.

It left her, since it was in the Now and she was in the Then.

She chased after it, heart light and warmer than the kindest summers.

She saw it go into A Boy, and The Boy drew his first breath in this new world.

It became a he, and the old soul looked down at his new form with fondness. He would not remember the time of In Between, and he may not remember her.

But that was fine.

'Oh, yes.'

She remembered now.

She knew why was she was here.

She hooked her little pink into the air and waved it at her oldest friend. He was reborn here, and she followed. Sometimes it was the other way around, but this time it was her turn.

'You. You are why I am here.'

(◕▾◕✿)

The "There" refers to realms tied to death / spiritual energy. "Here" refers to realms tied to life / physical energy.

Spiritual energy for the Bleachverse is reiatsu.

Physical energy for the Bleachverse is vitality, or life.

Question: Would you rather be reborn as hollow (you can be lucky enough to become an Espada), a human (with powers), or a shinigami (you can have whatever position you want)?

Reviews are love!