Part 19

Ichibe was embedded in a tree. He was just chilling there with an annoyed expression on his face. It was impressive how far he had been shot. Those guys were no pushovers.

But he was still pissed. They had damaged his favourite Haori and Gi. Those were handmade by himself. Well, that was a lie, but they were still hard and expensive to make.

He got himself out of the tree and used Shunpo to get back. Arrived at the scene where two blue people were talking with each other was rubbing him the wrong way.

That ain't right. But whatever. Saying anything might be considered racist.

He approached slowly. Otherwise, these Jackasses would probably attack him again. He was right as soon as they noticed him they wanted to attack him.

Ichibe put his hands up, to show that he was not an enemy. But it mattered not.

Laser eyes still fired at him and damaged his attire even further. Unlike the last time, Ichibe did not move from his position. He simply stood his ground.

"What's the deal yo? That's my favourite Haori man. You can't just attack someone out of the blue like that, that's not proper fightiquette."

This was weird for two reasons. One, Cyclops' attack did absolutely nothing than burn the stranger's clothes and two, he was only mad about the clothes and not about him being burned by lasers.

But you know our boy. He ain't normal. In fact, he was probably clinically insane. But that was another topic, that we shall not delve into right now.

"What do you want? Stay away from us!"

"Easy there. If I wished you harm I would have said so or done so. But I don't so we cool.

Now I would like to help your impaled friend over there. If you want me to."

This got the attention of all of them. Beast got very serious right there.

"You can save her? Is this a trick? If it is I will kill you if it's the last thing I do."

"Well Mr McCoy, your friend is dead already. There is nothing I can do about that.", Ichibe dropped the bomb, like some dense idiot.

"What?!?", Hank was angry and sad. He started to cry and the others did too.

"As I was saying, I can help your friend."

"You … can bring her … back?"

Ichibe was confused. Back? Oh back from the dead. Haha, how ridiculous. Why would he do that?

"No no, nothing like that. Well, at least not like you think. You see there is something I am very good at and if you want, I can do it.

You would get to see your friend, but she would still be dead. A soul if you wish. You could talk to her and interact with her if you wish, but she is no longer alive like you."

"So you are a necromancer? Do you think we would ever allow you to do something like that…"

"Woah, relax. I'm not a necromancer. She would pass on, but in a different way than you think. It's very natural but also beneficial to her.

You can ask her when she is back, whether it is bad or she feels worse or something like that."

The X-men took a moment to decide and eventually decided to do it. If there was a chance to see Raven again, they would take it.

Ichibe got to work, he had already done this three times, so he knew what he was doing. Three times exactly.

And it was with the three captains of the divisions of Gotei 13. All three of them were dead. They had all died at some point and Ichibe had done this.

How else would they be able to use a Zanpakuto? They were Shinigami in three Gigais respectively. His Gigai were different from the normal ones. They were able to use some of their powers inside it.

Ichibe got to work. It was a delicate process for him, as there was no Soul Society right now. He was stealing those souls from the Skeleton lady.

Carefully he got the right soul of Raven Darkhölme and transformed it into what he wanted. After approximately an hour, Ichibe was done.

In front of him stood the soul of Raven Darkhölme in rags. Due to Ichibe's interference, she still had her memories and knew that she was supposed to be dead.

"What's going on? Where am I? Shouldn't I be dead?"

"You died indeed, Ms Darkhölme. I did something, that we shall not discuss right now, and got you into the situation you are in right now.

You are now something different than before. You are a soul. And if you should agree, I will make you a Shinigami."

"You, I know you. You're that man that wanted to influence Jean! I would never help you."

"Now now, Ms Darkhölme. I didn't want to do anything of that sort. On the contrary, I wanted to help her. She has something dangerous going on inside her.

And I wanted to help her make a decision on her own, but you stopped me. But let's also not get into that right now.

You are dead. I made you into a soul that could theoretically become a Shinigami if you so wish. But the choice is yours."

"What is a Shinigami? And why can't they see me?"

"You are a soul. There are not many people that can see souls. To your other question, Shinigami means 'Reaper of death', and is someone that helps souls travel to Soul Society.

Now this place doesn't exist yet, but in the future it might. Right now Shinigami are a part of the Gotei 13. That is a group of people that help humans and try to create a better environment for everyone to live in.

Right now we are only located in China, but we are expanding slowly. There is resistance you understand and humans are not very cooperative.

However, we never take away free will. If someone wishes to do something or not, is perfectly their choice and that is also why we will not take over the world and force them to live in peace.

We will keep to our parts and people can choose to come and live there."

Ichibe had finished a rough summary of what they do. He would continue should she agree. If not, then there was no use to the talk anyway and she would just perish.

Raven thought about it for a while. The X-men were confused and didn't understand what was happening. They heard Ichibe talk with someone named Darkhölme, so they knew who it was.

Raven spoke.

"I made my decision. I'll…"