A New World
A thin young man with long flowing silver hair and piercing blue eyes was lying on a bed. Across from the bed was a TV, where the first episode of Bleach was playing. It was already his 16th time rewatching the anime, and he was just as excited as he was the first time he watched it. He was a massive fanboy of Bleach, as could be seen from his cupboard, which was filled with the manga and figurines, and his clothes, which all had Bleach characters printed on them.
After episode two finished, Takashi glanced at the clock and noticed it was time for dinner. He thought about getting up from bed and walking to the table, but then decided that he would rather sleep. He could hear his mother shouting for him, but his eyelids felt heavier and heavier, and he soon drifted off to sleep.
Takashi Ueno was an extremely unique person. He was born with a multitude of medical disorders including hypersomnia, a neurological disorder that causes an excessive amount of sleeping, narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that decreased his ability to regulate his sleep-wake cycle, sickle cell disease, a blood disorder, cystic fibrosis, a lung disease, and coronary heart disease, a disease that causes heart attacks.
All these disorders had been diagnosed by the time he was three, which meant that he lived much of his life in constant pain, with heart attacks and asphyxiation occurring periodically. He was in fact thankful for his hypersomnia and narcolepsy, as only when he was sleeping would he be able to escape the pain. He had spent most of his life going in and out of the hospital, with his visits becoming so frequent, the hospital had reserved a bed just for him.
He had never been to school, nor had he talked to anyone apart from his family and the doctors at the hospital. He had constantly been trying to find something to do with his life, but nothing truly captivated him, until one day, he found Bleach. His curiosity was aroused so he had picked it up, and was quickly pulled into the world created by Tite Kubo. All his pain and worry disappeared, and he felt happy for the first time in his life.
However, this happiness did not last long, as he was told that he would only be able to live for a few more years, and that it would be unlikely for him to live till adulthood. He was very indignant at first, but soon grew resigned. He decided that he would at least finish Bleach before he died, and so he dove into the bleach, reading the manga, watching the anime, reading the light novels, etc. Even after he finished, he loved it so much that he constantly kept on rewatching and rereading over and over again. That was how most of his life passed, either watching/reading Bleach, or sleeping.
He was very unhealthy because of that, as he would barely move around while eating lots of junk food, but he was still extremely skinny, one of the symptoms of cystic fibrosis. Because of this, his mom would get him to go on walks every day to stay healthy, and today was no different.
His mom walked into his room, and when she noticed him sleeping, she walked over and shook him a bit while saying his name. He wasn't waking up, and she noticed his chest wasn't moving. She suddenly had an ominous feeling, and hoped that Takashi was only going through asphyxiation. She quickly checked his pulse, but it was gone. She quickly grabbed a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff prepared for these kinds of situations, and wrapped it around his arm. She placed the stethoscope in the crook of his elbow, and deflated the cuff, but she could not hear the sound of blood flowing. Suddenly, all the strength left her body as she collapsed. Tears started flowing down her cheeks, and dripped onto Takashi's body.
When Takashi opened his eyes, before anything else, he noticed the pain, or rather, the lack of it. The next thing that he noticed was that he was not in his bed, and he was not wearing his pajamas. He was currently lying on a wooden floor, in what looked like a tiny wooden shack with what looked like a statue of a hand. He noticed that he was wearing a light blue kimono with a white obi sash. All these things flashed past his mind in an instant, and he quickly came to the conclusion that he was dreaming. Other possibilities were thought of, like transmigration or reincarnation, but they were dismissed as they were far too implausible, and he had had strange dreams before, so for now, Takashi was assuming that this was a lucid dream.
Since Takashi had established that this was a lucid dream, he started thinking about what he wanted to do. First of all, he wanted to stay in this dream as long as possible, as he could live without the constant pain. There was nothing he could do about waking up naturally, but he would definitely try to avoid things like dying, sleeping, or losing consciousness in any way or form. That means that everything he does should be something that supports that goal.
As Takashi got up, he realized something strange. He felt smaller. There was no mirror, so it was hard to say if he'd gotten shorter, but his arms and legs had definitely shrunk. He tripped over his own feet as his hand-eye coordination was messed up and smashed his face against the floor. The second time he got up, he was more careful and took things slowly. After a bit, he was able to stand.
When he was able to move around normally, Takashi started by investigating his surroundings. The shack he was in seemed like a shrine. There was some incense in front of the statue and a few worn mats surrounding it. There was no door and a simple broom was leaning on the doorway. Everything seemed to be well maintained. Takashi walked out of the shrine, and noticed a plaque above the doorway. The plaque read Shugoshin, which means guardian deity in Japanese. Takashi fell into thought.
'A hand, a guardian deity, and a shrine . . . that reminds me of something."
However, Takashi could not think of anything, and eventually had to give up when his stomach started rumbling. The shrine was in a clearing, with no obvious path leading out. He grabbed the broom to protect himself and chose a random direction to go in. The forest was very peaceful and quiet, with no animals nearby. After a while, he found a tree with fruits that looked like an apple. The branches were high up though, so Takashi thanked his past self for having the resourcefulness to bring a broom along. He used the broom to knock a few fruits off the tree and onto the ground. When he saw food in reach, his hunger overwhelmed so he picked one up and took a bite. A crisp, sweet taste overwhelmed his taste buds.
'Ahhhh . . . Hunger truly is the best seasoning.'
The fruits were quickly devoured, and a satisfied Takashi laid with his back against a tree.
'I'm so full I could burst. Now would be a great time for a nap.'
Takashi was about to drift off to sleep, when he suddenly remembered that sleeping would be disastrous. He immediately started doing all kinds of activities to keep himself up but exhaustion was winning, and it was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open.
'No. I can't fall asleep. I can't fall asleep.'
And with that last thought, his eyes closed and Takashi fell forward, sound asleep.