Chapter 3: Asauchi

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

*Sound Effects*

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A/N: Uh, if you haven't figured it out already, Koda knows nothing about Bleach, yes he was Japanese but he was relatively old, so there's my rationale, even if he did know about Bleach it would be in name only.

Also as a heads up, the word Asauchi is used in this chapter, but he does not know it is called that, this fic is written by the pov of a narrator unless stated otherwise.

Chapter 3: Asauchi

The sound of twigs and litter crunching under the weight of Koda's each and every footstep carried on for hours, and hours.

An odd, pungent smell lingered in the air, Koda looked from side to side until he caught a glimpse of a smoke trail that seemed to lead in the opposite direction.

'It might be worth checking out…' Slowly he started to head in the direction of the smoke — and lo and behold he was presented with quite the sight.

A campfire, with three ragged souls gathered around it.

But that didn't catch his full attention, rather what was in their hands seemed far more endearing. There was bread, warm, fresh bread to the extent where Koda could smell the aroma from where he stood.

'What should I do…should I just wait for them to fall asleep and then steal it? Wait, do people with that Reiryoku thing even need to sleep?'

Oblivious to what lurked merely a few feet behind them, the three figures continued to chat, drink and sing blaringly without a care in the world.

*Tremble*

Koda looked down only to notice his blade exuding strong vibrations throughout his entire body, almost as if it was urging him to do something.

'Is my blade…talking to me?' Though not a single word had been spoken, Koda could almost instinctively figure out what his blade, no, what his Asauchi was trying to say.

'It wants me to…kill them?' The trembling only grew more intense and violent, all but confirming Koda's thoughts. He took a long, hard look at his blade, if realizing that it was sentient wasn't already enough, it apparently had quite that appetite for bloodshed.

'You don't think stealing is an option?' Koda didn't have much of an appetite for murder, despite Tōsō's advice about coldness, surely he should try to avoid killing if possible.

A shock was sent straight to his head, his blade wanted nothing more than to yell 'Idiot!' at the top of its lungs.

'Ow!' Koda winced in pain as he massaged his scalp, annoyed by the brashness of his soon-to-be partner.

'Hm, they certainly don't seem to be the sharing type — and if I wait too long there won't be any food for me to steal in the first place…' A cold gleam began to shine through his sclera, as his train of thought slowly began to alter.

The reality of the situation was, he was malnourished and starving, and there was food right in front of him. Not to mention the longer he idled, the more food would be devoured.

'This world truly is cruel…but it's only rational to put my own life above that of a few strangers, besides, I'm sure they've got a body count of their own right?' As he was justifying what he was about to do in his head he gently put his blade down and began to quietly shuffle his way over to the trio, ensuring that he avoided stepping on any debris to prevent his presence from being detected.

The look in his eyes grew more and more empty as he was almost in striking range.

'Besides, it's their fault for not being aware of their surroundings, paranoia is a must have in order to survive…'

"Just you wait, soon I'm gonna be ten times as popular as that Jachiru fellow or whatever their name was!" Koda was almost at arms lengths of their backs, slowly he pulled the dagger he looted out from his clothes and rose his arm.

"You're crazy…haven't you heard the rumors?" One of the men exclaimed with a slightly dejected voice.

"Rumors my ass! My strength is unpara-" Before he could finish his sentence the cold touch of alloy had pierced the back of his neck.

Followed by the man sitting opposite him experiencing the same fate, leaving only one person with enough time to properly react.

"You fucker!"

No longer having the element of surprise at his behest to deal with the last camper, Koda simply took a large stride backwards and cocked the dagger in his right arm.

'I have no idea how to actually use a dagger in close quarters…but that shouldn't be a problem' Using all the force he could muster, he threw the dagger forwards, slashing right through the man's forehead.

Koda sighed in relief as the last member of the trio had fallen, even though he couldn't help but feel slightly guilty for jumping them — it was survival of the fittest.

Before inspecting his gains he first walked over and retrieved his Asauchi and dusted off the dirt that it had acquired.

Immediately a surge of tremors started to reverberate from the blade, making its annoyance crystal clear.

'Sorry bout that, but I needed to be light on my feet' His blade continued to throw a temper tantrum to which he could do nothing but endure.

He took a seat on one of the logs, strangely unbothered by the fresh corpses around it and immediately started to dig in.

'The bread has gone slightly cold but at least it's not moldy, I'd say that's a massive bonus' He continued to wolf down every last crumb he could get his hands on, allowing him to recover, even if only slightly a bit more Reiryoku.

'This should put an end to my hunger momentarily, once I've reached civilization I should hopefully be able to eat something more concrete'

He sat down intending to take a short break, allowing him some time to recuperate and collect himself before he continued his escapade.

Taking yet another look of curiosity at his blade, he picked it up and held it in front of his face, squinching as he tried to get read on it.

'What exactly are you? That dagger doesn't seem to be sentient so you must be special in some way right?'

He sighed as the Asauchi decided to be uncharacteristically silent, waiting for the day that Koda's soul would fully imprint upon it.

'At least I'm not completely alone, who knows maybe one day you'll have an actual voice, my Old Man used to talk about "hearing your blade" or whatever that crap was…' He sat in silence for roughly an hour, staring at the fire until he finally felt ready to continue moving.

'Welp, break's over, it's about time I get going'

—

*Patter* *Patter*

A heavy downpour started crashing down onto the surface of the 80th District, the tired souls of a nearby settlement all began scurrying to their bamboo huts for shelter, wrapping themselves in hay in an attempt to stay warm.

Ten gruff looking men wearing rags, each with a rusted sword hanging from their waists were stood from afar, staring at the settlement intently.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Stood in front of the rest of the group was a tall, burly beast of a man with long gray hair that almost reached his waist.

He was their leader, the only one among them that had Reiryoku in him.

"Would you rather freeze to death? I didn't realize I had such a jellyfish among my ranks" In spite of his voice being low and slightly monotone, the way he looked at his subordinate made it clear he was annoyed.

Their plan was simple, annihilate everyone in sight and use the settlement as shelter. Originally the goal was to take over one of the more developed areas, but they simply didn't have the manpower for such an endeavor.

"No…of course not, sir" Considering he had just founded his group, they were all immensely weak. Their leader was quite ambitious despite his aged body, but he had spent most of his life picking on weaker souls, deluding him into thinking he could stomp on the rest of the world just as easily.

His underling couldn't help but hang his head in shame, he wasn't an innately evil person — at least by 80th standards, but he couldn't bear the conditions he had been living in, pushing him into his current predicament.

The same could be said for the majority of the group, they weren't truly evil, just desperate. At least, that's what they told themselves, they needed to justify killing innocents somehow.

"What about the rest of you? Any complaints?" His eyes stared down the rest of his group, daring them to object.

"No sir!" They shouted in unison.

"Then get moving!" Everyone began to scatter around the settlement with looks of unease and regret on their face — but disobedience would mean death, so they did what they were told.

"N..n…no! Please!" One by one the villagers were slaughtered, their belongings were pooled in the middle of the settlement whilst the Bandit Leader just looked on with a bored expression.

"Ouchi-sama, what should we do with the children?"

"Children? Why should I care? Just kill them off…" Each and every one of his underlings froze in response, they knew that their leader was by no stretch of the imagination kind, but never had they expected such a level of coldness from him.

"What are you all just gawking at me for? Get on with it, you know what happens if you don't" Ouchi wanted to condition his underlings into cold-blooded killers, having to live with the reality of murdering mere children would force an immense sense of emotional detachment.

He was both arrogant and shrewd, the latter being a great quality for someone who wanted to thrive in the 80th District, but the former being a death sentence.

One of his subordinates, a young man by the name of Itoh gulped before the sight of a daughter sobbing as she buried her face into the robes of her deceased mother.

His stomach turned and his consciousness was a mess, the only thing he could do was trick his mind into believing what he was doing was merciful. The child wouldn't live much longer without her mother to support her regardless.

And if he didn't follow through, Ouchi would obliterate him, this was the situation he had gotten himself into.

His hands tremored intensely as he rose his blade, a single tear leaking from his eye as he swung down. Fighting the urge to vomit he ran out of the hut, not wanting to look at the grotesque scene he had caused.

"Wha…"

When he exited the hut, he witnessed a sight that sent shivers down his spine and he wasn't alone, as the rest of the bandits slowly exited the huts they had just pillaged their expressions slowly became similar.

Ouchi was lying face-flat on the ground…in a pool of his own blood, none of them had even the faintest idea that there was danger lurking near them.

Right beside him stood a man with white hair donning a light blue haori, his blade was fully drenched in crimson and marks of red liquid were scattered all over his body.

'I didn't even hear a scream…Ouchi-sama died…that fast?' All the color was drained from Itoh's face when he realized his leader's killer was staring right at him.

"You there, I'm smelling quite a bit of blood from these huts around me, mind telling me what happened?" Koda's voice was full of venom, he already had a relatively good idea of what had happened.

'Shit…' Itoh couldn't help but curse inwardly.