His mystical eyes once again greeted the world as he slowly woke up. What welcomed his view was a worn-out wooden roof with little cracks where one can peek at the sky. Noticing the blaring sun that lit up the sky through the openings on the roof, he determined that it was currently noon.Looking around he noticed that he was alone, and the owners of this place were barely hanging on. There was a small place where wooden utensils were kept, including a couple of dirty plates in what could be a kitchen. On the other side, two makeshift beds like the one he is currently laying on were planted on the ground. In the middle of this tiny hut was a small area for firewood to keep the cold out providing warmth to the residents.
It was a simple place which rarely got any visitors, however, for him it was unnerving. This was because no matter where he looked, he could see lines everywhere and, in his heart, he knew that these were conceptual lines of death. He was able to notice that the more lines one object had the closer it was to the end of its lifespan.
His mystic eyes seemed different to Shiki Tohno"s, who sees jagged lines and points of death as his eyes specialised in killing living things. They, in fact, seemed similar to the other user, Shiki Ryougi, whose eyes specialised in killing concepts. The mystic eyes of death perception differ with each individual in the way they perceive death and their experience. This can be seen as Shiki Tohno"s eyes are several ranks lower than those of Shiki Ryougi.
As he was lost in his thoughts Rangiku entered the hut carrying a bucket of water and immediately saw him awake. As his back was turned towards her, she never got a proper look at his eyes and instead called out.
"So, you"re finally awake?"
This drew his attention causing him to turn around and get a proper look at the person who called out his name. Identifying her as Matsumoto Rangiku, future lieutenant of the 10th division of the Gotei 13, clear excitement appeared on his face. Fortunately, it went unnoticed due to it being strange if a stranger randomly gets excited seeing you, especially in soul society where someone loses their memories once they enter soul society.
Unfortunately, for Rangiku, she was too scared to notice. For her, she just entered and called out to the unconscious boy Gin brought yesterday seeing he had finally woken up. She saw him turn around antic.i.p.ating to once again see his beautiful face as her expression turned red but was immediately replaced by shear fear when she saw his eyes. She felt like death itself was grasping her heart and one move would be all it takes for it to kill her.
You couldn"t blame her due to the fact that as soon as our main character looked at her, his attention was immediately grasped by the lines of death on Rangiku. Realising the complexion of Rangiku becoming pale white and the increasing fear in her eyes, he quickly closed his eyes to stop scaring her further.
As soon as he closed his eyes, Rangiku seemed to have woken up from a daze and fell backwards. Realising the cold sweat flowing on her back she once again looked at the boy only to notice he had closed his eyes and the sensation of death gone. Before she could escape, she heard a voice riddled with guilt and apology.
"Sorry"
A small voice sounded out, but it was heard clearly by Rangiku as she saw him bowing his head, his figure conveying his apologies. Still shocked by the previous matter, she absent-mindedly replied
"It"s okay" and continued to observe the boy from a distance.
After a few moments of silence, she was unable to take it and questioned
"Who are you?"
The boy was taken aback with the question but remembered her personality from the anime being an easy-going one. He replied with a faint smile,
"I don"t remember much but all I know is that my name is Minamoto, Minamoto Itsuki"
Once again, she fell into a daze but this time seeing his smile. With the previous incident pushed to the back of her head she started to ask more questions becoming increasingly more active although there were still some traces of fear in her voice whenever she talked to him. Itsuki just sighed to this as there was nothing that he can do and just needed to learn to control his eyes properly, so he won"t start frightening everyone he looks at.
As they continuously conversed, slowly the fear in Rangiku started to subside as she got to know him more. She realised that he was just a new soul unaware of where he was and the current situation. That"s what Itsuki wanted her to think as he technically was a new soul but just had his memories from before his death. As the conversation slowly went towards his eyes, Itsuki replied that he didn"t know or just evaded the topic altogether. Remembering back to her encounter with his eyes, fear appeared on her face but was quickly replaced by determination to help this new friend of hers to come to terms with his situation.
This was interrupted by the sound of a growl coming from the boy"s stomach as a faint shade of red appeared on his face. Noticing his embarra.s.sment, reduced more of her fear as this further indicated that he was just another soul just like her. Taking out some leftover stale bread, she handed it to him and found some cloth to help cover his eyes just like Itsuki requested. As Itsuki ate the stale bread, she started to explain to him about soul society. Although Itsuki knew the general situation of soul society, he didn"t know everything. Slowly listening to Rangiku"s explanation he got a better understanding of soul society learning that he was in District 64 of North Rukongai.
Part of soul society, Rukongai was the most populated area was divided into 320 districts, which can further be divided into 4 parts, North, East, South and West with each containing 80 districts.
They are then each numbered in descending order starting from 1 which is the closest to the centre and Seireitei (which will be introduced further on in the story). The number then increases the further they are from the centre, this results in the higher-numbered and farther districts decaying into slums.
Thus, while District 1 is peaceful and lawful, much like the antiseptic lifestyle of early-Edo era Kyoto, District 80 is a hardscrabble, violent, crime-infested area that more depicts the Heian era Kyoto.
As he listened to her explanation, footsteps could be heard walking towards the hut.
Gin was returning from collecting some firewood and more dried persimmon seeds. As soon as Gin entered, Rangiku sprung up and rushed to Gin for her persimmon seeds she craved for. Just as she was about to dig in, she looked up as if remembering an important matter that she had forgotten.
"Ah, I never introduced myself. My name is Matsumoto Rangiku, and this here is my best friend Ichimaru Gin"
"Pleased to meet you, Ichimaru-san, Matsumoto-san. I"m Minamoto Itsuki"