Bleach: My Afterlife in Shin'o Academy

Chapter 1: Enrollment

Hey guys! This story revolves around someone going through Soul Reaper Academy after being sent to the Soul Society. I'm more throwing an Idea I've had in my head for a while on paper, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!

This story will take place in the same universe as the other Bleach Fanfiction I will be releasing soon. You don't need to read both, but if you do, some context and insight may be revealed to you ;)

As an added note, I did as much research into how souls are processed once they enter the Soul Society and it's pretty ambiguous, so I'm going to take a few creative liberties.

A young girl, no older than 16, with scarlet hair bound by a ponytail in a plaid skirt and a teal school blazer adorned by a gold-colored emblem belonging to the high school she attended when she was alive, stood in line in an unfamiliar place. She nervously adjusted the black tie peeking out of the white button-up and tapped her toe tips on the marble tile, pushing her foot further into the white sneakers that were slightly too large for her feet. The azure sky and blaring sun relieved the tension in her shoulders. Despite being in a different world, the blue atmosphere was the same.

A sharp cough from behind brought her out of her musings, noticing the line had moved ahead. The teen squeaked out a small apology to the gruff-looking gentleman in a business suit behind her and scampered across the space until she was back in line. Being much closer to the front, she noticed that people of all ages wearing different clothing from different eras were filtered through several stations. Each staffed by official-looking people donned in black shihakusho, similar to the one the orange-haired man who had sent her here had worn.

Doing her best to suppress the nervousness and anxiety, it was her turn in front where an unenthused balding man shuffled through various paperwork with a dead expression in his amber eyes. Without bothering to look up at her, he asked her in an exhausted monotonous tone "Name?"

She gulped to clear the lump in her throat before answering with a small squeak, "Kotomi Mizawa." The man shuffled through some papers and scratched his stubbly cheek aging face. His eyes flashed up from the documents to the young girl's face, a look of regret managing to break through the stern expression before he continued.

"Female, Age 16, cause of death murder, formerly living in Japan. Sounds about right?" Her mind flashed to the events that brought her here, replaying her death, as if it were a looping VHS tape, and clutched her arm tightly as if to comfort herself before nodding. "Right so according to your soul ticket... You've been assigned to Rukon District 3, Hokutan. It's to the west of here. I'll prep a Hell Butterfly to take you to your new home." Just as he was standing to fetch one of the ebony insects, she spoke up.

"Uh... pardon me. Sorry for troubling you. Substitute Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki said that I should go seek out the Soul Reaper Academy. Can you point me in that direction?" The man perked up at the mention of the Orange haired savior. There wasn't a person in the Seireitei who didn't know that name, and every single one of them was deeply indebted to him. He gave the girl a closer look, trying to feel her spiritual pressure, wondering why she was trying to go through with this.

"You sure about this kid? Being a Soul Reaper ain't an easy job. You'll be placing yourself in danger every single day." It was true that they were in desperate need of new recruits, especially in the aftermath of the Quincy invasion, but he didn't want to see a girl as young as her have to go through any more trauma than she already had.

She took a moment to reply, gaze shifting towards her feet. "I... don't know to be honest. All of this is strange to me, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I mean, I've always been able to see shadowy figures that I always suspected were ghosts, and now there's creatures running around in white masks and guys with swords that go around killing them?" She felt ridiculous for even saying this, but she couldn't deny the evidence in front of her own eyes. "What I do know is... When I was alive and captain of the kendo club at school, I woke up every morning with one goal in mind: to get stronger. If the Soul Reaper Academy will help me with my goal, then that's where I want to go."