Ouroboros (Bleach/Fairy Tail Crossover)

Chapter 1: Chances are Overrated

99% of the time, Gin's first reaction once he woke up wouldn't be to wonder where he was. 99% of the time, he would remember his situation instantly from before he lost consciousness. 99% of the time, he would calmly and quickly assess his surroundings instinctively and draw educated conclusions if something unexpected occurred. But this was the rare 1% chance something else could happen. However, he had woken up when he was supposed to be dead, so Gin thought that he had the damn right to be confused.

"What in the world," he muttered as he picked himself up, "Now, how could I have ended up here? I'm supposed ta be dead. Kicked the bucket, slit the wrists, cut the string, fell into the void, or light, or whatever was waiting for me. So WHY-" here Gin threw his arms out in an uncharacteristic show of irritation "-and HOW did I get to my inner world?" His voice echoed through an endless blank space. Foggy mist and white dust stayed suspended in the air. The gray cloudy skies gave no response.

Gin sighed and relaxed, dropping his raised limbs. He grumbled, "This is why I didn' like training with Shinso. It's so BORING here. I can't believe this is my soul." Then, for the first time, he rethought that statement. "Actually... I s'ppose I AM a little mysterious and shady..." He mused.

"You don't say?" A sarcastic voice spoke up behind him. Gin turned in surprise after being caught off guard, but his shock multiplied tenfold.

Rangiku smiled wryly at him.

His eyes actually widened a little to reveal their color. Then, his mask reappeared as if nothing ever happened.

"Don' ya know it ain't not nice to sneak up on people? Or ta use the body of the person I love?" Gin smoothly replied. He basked in smugness at the startled look on the imposter's face.

She soon recovered and countered with her own smirk. "Well, I didn't expect you to realize that, considering how little time you spend with her despite your supposed contradicting feelings," she snarked.

Gin frowned, letting his strange smile drop for once. "Mouuu, that was harsh. You didn't have to say that when I knew perfectly well," he whined.

"Rangiku" shook her head. "Anyways, we have more important matters to be worrying about," she said impatiently.

"Like how Ran-chan's gonna kill you once she finds out you've been usin' her body and givin' her a nasty personality?" Gin snickered. Veins popped all over the imposter's forehead.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and let Gin off the hook with only a glare. "No. I'm supposed to tell you what you're going to do now," she explained.

Gin tilted his head. "EHHHH? I still have to DO something? But aren't I dead?" He complained.

The fake Rangiku rolled her eyes. "Dude, you're this so-called genius. Stop acting so dumb. If you'd just stop talking for ONE SECOND, I could actually EXPLAIN that-"

"Okay, one second's up," Gin interrupted. He smiled innocently as the pressure of her glare increased.

"Fine. Two can play this way. Let's settle this with a game," she decided. Gin's attention was immediately captured.

"A game?" He asked curiously.

She groaned, "What are you, a puppy? Listen to the rules. If you win, I won't stop you from acting stupid. But if I win, you can't speak unless I say you can. Are these terms satisfactory?"

Gin hummed in thought. "Well, I s'ppose they are. What's the game?"

"Simple really. I ask you a question. You have 3 chances to get it right. If you guess wrong all 3 times or go over the 5 minute time limit, you lose. If you guess right, you win," she spun off the top of her head.

Gin did his equivalent of a pout. "But that's not fair. You'll control everything."

The stranger facepalmed. "Look, are we doing this or not?"

"...Alright," Gin agreed.

The victorious smirk spreading across her face made him wary. "Here's the question: Who am I really?" Silence spread across the two.

Gin suddenly spoke up, "Really? That's it? I have ta say your name? What is this, Rumpelstiltskin?"

The imposter clicked her tongue. "That's one guess down."

Gin was taken aback. "Huuuuh? That's not fair!"

"Stop whining and go," she snapped.

The man was quiet for a few moments. When he spoke again, "Rangiku" was startled by sudden serious and confident tone. "I already know who ya are- actually, it'd be more appropriate ta say what you are. In fact, I've known for a while. I was just tryin' to buy myself some time," Gin admitted.

She narrowed her eyes at his superior claim. "Oh yeah? Fine, then I'll give you one chance. Give it your best shot."

"You're an entity," Gin stated softly, "Not quite a god, yet way more powerful than a soul."

There was a tense moment as "Rangiku" blinked rapidly. "H-how did you know? How did you find out?" the "entity" stammered.

"Then I'm assumin' I'm right. Well, it's been obvious for a while now," Gin said, voice now more casual, "The first alarm went off as ya showed up Rangiku's body. As far as I know, and I think I know quite a lot, there shouldn't be anything related to shape shifters. The closest thing would be the 9th Espada, but Aizen himself created his powers so there's nothing else like him. Secondly, I'm dead. Yet somehow, you're in my inner world and talkin' to me. That shouldn't be possible even if I were alive. Thirdly, it's because of something you verbally said: "No. I'm supposed to tell you what you're going to do now." And that question I asked straight afterwords was legit- how can you make me do anything if I was dead?"

She was stunned in silence for a moment. "It seems as though I underestimated you. But still, there should have been around an 95% chance that you wouldn't guess correctly."

Gin raised his head and looked at the sky. "Ya know, for being an entity and all, you ain't all that bright. There something I've learned after some centuries of existing: you can't rely on chances. You can try and calculate all you want, but some things are just not meant to be. There is always gonna be something you forgot to add in the equation. There should have been 99% chance I killed Aizen. There should have been 99% I lived to tell the tale. There should have been 100% the mad man would have taken over the Soul Society if I didn't. But none of that happened," he sighed.

... Yeah, I wanted to try writing something "deep." But I dunno if that turned out that well. So, Gin's little speech inspired the name of the title of this chapter. (Or is it the other way around? You'll never know ;)

Also, I have no idea why, or if this helps, but I imagine Gin's inner world to be something like the remainder of Magnolia when Fairy Tail was sucked into Edolas.

Edit: some things are OOC so I'm going back and fixing it. Also, I'm trying to make Gin's talk more slang-y. They are not typos.