Welcome to the Soul Society (1)

"{I'm dead, again...}"

In my first life, I was born in Texas. Since childhood, I was a thug, a thief, and a problem child, and when I grew up, I became a killer, a criminal, and an embarrassment for my family.

At the end, my conscience couldn't take it anymore. I tried to do something good, something that would make my parents proud and lessen the guilt in my soul. The result was one straight bullet to the head.

In my second life, I was born in Japan. I had a Japanese family, and I speaked three languages: Spanish, English, and Japanese.

This new life was my opportunity to redeem myself, my way to paid for the sins of my past life.

I obeyed the rules, I went to school, I respected my parents, I did everything society called correct, and the end result was that I died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver.

*Sniff* 

"...son"

*sobbing* 

"My baby...why..."

*cry*

"Waa...little brother..."

"{Why am I here?...Is this a form of hell?}"

On a medium-sized room, a coffin was in the middle of it. There were seats on both sides, only leaving a line in the middle. Several people were passing by it and speaking to the coffin one by one.

A framed photo was on top of the coffin; in the photo, a child no more than eight years old wearing some school uniform with a happy smile could be seen.

{It's my funeral} I looked at the picture.

My father, mother, and sister were crying. For some reason, I'm still here, but nobody can see me or hear me.

"{Am I dreaming?}"

"No, young one, you are not."

{...!?} A man wearing some kind of wierdy clothes was suddenly beside me. To make matters worse, he was carrying a sword around his waist.

"{Who...are you?}" I took a step back.

"Take it easy, kid. I came here to help you transition into the afterlife. I'm a [Shinigami]."

{What!?, shinigami? That's impossible! It has to be, right? ...did I reincarnate into an anime?}

Although my first life was chaotic, I did have a normal childhood, so I watched the trending cartoons at that time, and one of them was part of the so-called big three; it was called [Bleach]. Some people even said that it was one of the weakest of them all.

"Easy there, kid." He grabbed my arm.

I couldn't resist him; he was way stronger than me.

"{What...is going to happen to me?}" I tried to collect more information.

"Nothing bad will happen to you if that's what you are worried about." He tried to smile, but his rough face only made him more threatening.

"{O..ok}"

*Kasha*

He released my arm, and with that same hand, he grabbed his sword—a [katana] to be exact.

*thud* *thud*

I took two steps back.

"Relax, kid, come here." He presented me with the bottom part of the hand of his sword; it had a strange symbol engraved on it.

*Tap* *tap* *tap*

*Bam*

"{Ouch}" I got closer to him, and he responded by striking my forehead with the bottom of it.

The strange symbol got stuck on my forehead. I can see it in the reflection of the photo on top of the coffin.

Another thing that I noticed was that I was disappearing quickly.

"{What is happening to me!?}"

"This is the normal process; good luck on the other side."

"{Wh..}"

*************

"Ugh, where am I?" I looked around me.

I was in a tunnel; it had tourches on the sides as illumination, and there were a lot of people and more appearing out of nowhere.

"Please follow the lines, and those that just came, please take a number."

People wearing the same clothes as the other guy were organizing and guiding the newcomers.

{Hmm?, I guess I should do that} I approached one of the shinigami.

"Ahm, excuse me, I'm new."

"Here, kid." He just handed me a paper.

"Thanks," I took it the paper. The words [East District 13] were written on it.

I approached another shinigami.

"Excuse me, where do I need to form?" I show him the paper. 

"Huh, ah, is right there?" He pointed at the last line.

"Thank you," I said, then I went where he said.

Another Shinigami was on the end of the line with a wooden sign that said [End of the Line]. So I just formed there, and he went behind me.

"Number 6" Another shinigami at the front of the line was calling the numbers.

"Me," a person said.

"Come here." He pointed where he was.

"Y..yes!" When he reached the shinigami, the person disappeared.

"Number 7"

"H..here"

"Number..."

{It's like taking attendance}

"Number 13" 

"Here." Finally, my number was said, and I approached the shinigami.

When I reached the place he was, my vision turned hazy, and then I was in another place.

"What?"

"Welcome to the Soul Society."

"!?" There were three shinigami in front of me: two men and one woman. They had stoic faces.

"Please follow this line." The woman was the one speaking; the line that she was referring to was on the right side of her.

"Yes." I did as she told me.

At the end of the line, there was a long table with five shinigami seated on it, three women and two men. Each of them had something different in front of them.

"Welcome, here, take this." The one who spoke first was the one on the far left side of the table.

"Yes, thank you." She handed me a small book.

"Here." The next one was the one to her right.

"Thanks." He handed me clothes.

"Here" 

"Thank you." She handed me a coin purse.

"Here"

"Thank you." He handed me a small bag.

"Here" 

"Thank you." She handed me a big bag.

"Now you need to follow this line." She pointed at the line on her right side after handing me the big bag.

"Understood," I followed along the line.

As I was following the line, I checked the small and big bags, and I took the opportunity to change my clothes. After all, there was no one except me here. In the small bag were seeds, and in the big one there was food.

"I feel like I'm cosplaying." The clothes that they gave me were typical of the Edo period.

As for my other clothes, I put them in the big bag along with the food.

*Tap* *tap* *tap*

Now that I was alone, I had time to think about this situation.

{This is crazy; maybe this is really a dream, and I'm in a coma at the hospital}

I couldn't believe all of this was real. How could I?, fiction and reality are different things. Even when I reincarnated in Japan, the world was normal, or at least I thought it was.

"Stop"

"Hmm!?" I didn't realize that I was at the end of the line.

At the end of the line, a giant wall was there. The wall had an arch in the middle. This arch was protected by three shinigami, one in the middle of it and two on the far right and left, respectively.

"Paper" The shinigami in the middle extended his hand.

"Here," I handed the piece of paper.

"Very well, welcome to the East District."

He handed me back the paper, and he stepped aside.

"Thank you." I took it and proceeded to the arch.

On the other side, what greets me is an old-looking city. The roads were made out of dirt, and the structures were made out of wood; only some were made out of rocks.

The people on the streets weren't too bad-looking; some were barefoot; others were wearing some kind of sandals; and their clothes weren't too shabby either, only here and there.

{Ok, I need a place to stay} I looked around for some kind of hotel.

Then I spotted a place that had a sign on top of it that said [Nekoya Inn], a little motel between a restaurant and a burdel.

"...it could be worse."