New World, New History

A week had passed since Toshiro's mother had collapsed in the hallway, and it was finally time for him to start his studies at the Soul Reaper Academy. On the road outside of the academy, a young boy with snow-white hair can be seen being dragged behind an orange-haired girl while a couple watched, laughing at the pair of children.

Shinji: "Hahaha, they really do look good together," he said before feeling a chill down his back.

While Shinji was looking around confused as to where the killing intent had come from, his wife just sighed.

Kanade: "Stop teasing the boy will you?" she said

Shinji: "haha, fine. But you have to admit that it's funny to tease those two about it. I mean, how obvious can Rangiku get?" he said with a chuckle.

Kanade: "I know, but we shouldn't interfere with those two's relationship. If you screw it up for those two I swear to god..." she trailed off.

Shinji: "Ok, ok, I get it, don't push it too hard, Rodger that." he said while doing an over-exaggerated salute.

While the couple was bickering about their son's relationship, the boy in question was busy having his ear talked off by an excited redhead.

Rangiku: "-and then we go to sword training. While I like sword training, I prefer Kido, do you know what kido it? Kido are the spells that soul reapers use - *Bla Bla Bla*" she went on and on about what Toshiro would be learning at the academy. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if he could ace the academy finals with how much she was telling him.

Toshiro: "Ok Rangiku, as much as I would love to head exactly why you prefer to use your right hand over your left hand when casting kido, we're here" he cut her off so she doesn't keep talking until sunset.

In front of them stands a wall about 4 meters tall with a large gate that had a sign above it reading 'Soul Reaper Academy'. Through the gate, a path to the main building can be seen with two open fields for practicing kido and swordsmanship. The main building was by far the largest in the village, standing three stories tall and covered enough land that Toshiro thought it would easily hold two football fields.

Standing in front of the gate was a thin man wearing glasses with dark blue chin-length hair falling mostly on the right side of his face. Seeing the approaching group, he stepped forward.

????: "The Hitsugaya family I presume? My name is Uryu Ishida, one of the instructors at the academy. I was tasked with guiding Toshiro Hitsugaya to his class." he said with a small bow which everyone present returned. "I assume you are Toshiro?" he said turning to the white-haired boy.

Toshiro: "Yes sir, I am Toshiro Hitsugaya. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." he said politely while thinking, 'This is so weird seeing epilogue Uryu and kid Rongiku, I guess that means other characters can appear with different ages as well.'

Uryu: "It's good that you know how to show respect. Now, if you will excuse me Mr and Mrs Hitsugaya, I need to take Toshiro to his class." he said seriously.

Shinji: "Of course, good luck Toshiro. I know you'll do great."

Kanade: "Good luck dear, we'll see you at home." they said before turning and walking back home.

Uryu: "Follow me, If you have any questions ask them now" he stated, turning around and making his way to the school building before waiting for the pair of kids.

Jogging to catch up, Toshiro was curious as to why Rangiku was following them.

Toshiro: "Shouldn't you be going to your class Rangiku?" he asked

Rangiku: "But I am! We are going to be in the same class!" she said beaming.

Toshiro: "Wait, how is that possible? Are you secretly an idiot?" he asked earning him a pinch o the waist and a pout from the redhead.

Rangiku: "Hmf, I'm not an idiot," she said while continuing to pout, which looked pretty cute in Toshiro's opinion. Hearing their argument, Uryu decided to explain.

Uryu: "The soul reaper academy operates differently than a normal school. Instead of separating classes by age, we do so by progress with one's zanpakuto. When a person receives an Asauchi it looks like any regular katana, but after enough of a connection is formed with it, its appearance changes slightly making it unique. Once someone achieves this they are moved to the intermediate grade. If a student achieves Shikai while at school, they are then placed in the advanced class." he explained, "Students stay at the academy for 10 years then regardless of what class you are in you graduate. The class you are in determines the roles you take as a soul reaper."

After hearing the explanation, Toshiro nodded in understanding. before turning to Rangiku.

Toshiro: "You're not an idiot, sorry for teasing you," he said while patting her head.

Blushing, she pinched him again before looking away.

Rangiku: "At least you understand"

Arriving in front of a large door, Uryu turned to the pair.

Uryu: "This will be your classroom, make sure to come to the staff room after class, you will be given your Asauchi then." he said before turning and walking away.

Toshiro: "Serious one isn't he?" he said to no one in particular.

Rangiku: "Yeah, but don't let him hear you say that, you don't want to be on his bad side. Anyways, let's go in!" she said grabbing his arm and pulling him inside.

Walking in, they approach the teacher.

Toshiro: "Hello Sensei, I am Toshiro Hitsugaya. I will be joining this class today," he said giving a slight bow.

????: "I'm Gengoro Onabara. Sit anywhere you want, class will start in a few minutes." he said looking up from his papers at Toshiro.

Toshiro: "Yes sir Onabara-sensei." he said before being dragged away again by Rangiku. "Where are you taking me now?" he sighed.

Rangiku: "Well of course you're going to be sitting next to me," she said matter-of-factly.

Hearing her, all of the boys in class glared at Toshiro. Feeling their stares, Toshiro just sighed and went along with Rangiku.

Toshiro: "So, are you going to introduce me to any of your friends?" he asked curiously as he had never met any of them.

Rangiku: "Hmf, the girls say I'm not 'lady-like' enough and the boys are all creeps," she said

Toshiro: "Wait, so you don't have any friends?" he asked with a little concern.

Rangiku: "Well I've got you," she said with a smile, which only caused the glares Toshiro felt to grow stronger. Ignoring them, the two chatted waiting for class to begin.

A few minutes later, Onabara stood up and walked to the front of the room.

Onabara: "Ok class, today we have a new student, Toshiro Hitsugaya. Please raise your hand Toshiro," seeing he raised his hand he continued, "While I know you want to get to know him, we need to start class, so wait until after to do so," he said and then walked over to the board to begin the lecture.

(AN: This is kinda going to be an info dump for history and world-building, Important stuff so don't skip)

Onabara: "Today we will be covering the history and origins of soul reapers and hollows. Get your notebooks out now to take notes. Before we start with that, we need to cover a little bit of world history from over a thousand years ago.

A little over a thousand years ago, a few people(Humans, Fishmen, Minks, all the races) were born with odd abilities, breathing fire, turning into sand, etc etc. As time went on, normal people began to grow jealous of the people these people had and began to run experiments to see if they could gain these powers. One researcher believed that if the heart of a power holder was consumed, the person would gain their ability. When testing this, something unforeseen occurred. When the heart of the power holder was removed, the body began spasming, and while liquid began gushing out of their eyes. After a few minutes, this liquid hardened into a mask on the person and the person's body began to change into that of a monster, thus creating the first hollow.

While this process was taking place, the researcher fled and hid away the heart of the hollow, which had turned into a strange-looking fruit. The newly formed hollow began killing the researchers in an attempt to find it's the heart but ultimately failed. In an attempt to restore its heart, it ripped the hearts out of every power holder it found, thus creating more hollows. this cycle repeated, but no matter how many hearts it took, it could not get back its own.

Eventually, the power holders were all killed and became hollows, and when there was no more power holder, the hollows turned their sights onto the ordinary people. Years went by and the war between the two raged on with the different races of people on the losing side. That was until the human king at the time developed a way to use his very soul to strengthen himself. he passed this knowledge on to the rest of the races and named it Haki.

With Haki, the races finally had a chance to fight back against the hollows, but the king was unsatisfied with the power of Haki and continued working until he created a new method of power he called it Reishi. Teaching a select few how to control Reishi, the king created a special squad and named them soul reapers. Because of him inventing the method to control one's own soul, the human king was then renamed the Soul King.

The Soul King led the push against the hollows, and the races finally began winning. Unfortunately, what no one knew was that you can't truly kill a hollow without destroying the body and heart at the same time, at most it will be gone for a few years, maybe a few decades if lucky. With the numbers of the hollow starting to return to what they were at the beginning of the war, the Soul King grew desperate.

In the next battle, the King's wife was present not too far from the battlefield, and unknown to the king, the hollows had planned an ambush, killing the Queen. All that was recovered was her wedding ring. Empowered by the grief of losing his wife, the king's very soul empowered the last memento of his wife, her wedding ring. This power was dubbed FullBringer, and the king used its power to draw out the First Hollow, as it was believed to have gained sentience and was leading the hollows.

The battle between the Soul King and the First Hollow raged on for over a month before the two lay defeated, both landing a finishing blow on the other. In his last act, the Soul King shattered his very soul and placed the fragments into the remaining soul reapers.

Following the death of their leader, the hollows retreated into the shadows of the world. While the smaller hollows, the Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde classes were small enough to hide on land, the Gillians were too large and sunk to the bottom of the Calm Belt, where they still roam, rarely making appearances.

The soul reapers kept their promise to the Soul King and continue to hunt hollows to this day to prevent another calamity. While the hollows lost their hearts, they did not lose their powers, although they did become slightly weaker, that was only the case for newly formed hollows. If allowed to consume enough people, the hollows would grow too strong. While the reason is still unknown, hollows are incapable of killing the Devil Fruit user of their corresponding fruit.

Though killing them is not permeant, it resets the power of the hollow upon reforming. In an attempt to permanently kill a hollow, a soul reaper tried to hear the fruit that had formed from its heart, and while they gained a boost in power for a short time, they eventually died. Because of this, it is forbidden for a soul reaper to eat a hollow heart, or as they are now known, Devil fruit. The soul reapers' new duty was to prevent the hollows from finding and consuming their corresponding fruit, as by doing so they would gain unimaginable power.

While low-level hollows lack any semblance of intelligence, higher-level hollows regain their intellect and in rare cases emotions. Smarter hollows tend to follow around the Devil fruit user that holds their heart, as they are incapable of killing them, they choose to keep an eye on them in hopes of regaining their heart. Though there are very few hollows able to take a permanent human form with parts of their mask remaining, and several of these hollows remain neutral, not devouring people or seeking their hearts. But that does not mean you can trust them, you can never trust a hollow.

For years the back and forth between hollows and soul reapers continued, but after some time, hollows mysteriously gained the ability to create an illusion of a human form while hiding their true bodies. This leads the soul reapers to be pursued by the World Government thinking we were pirates. When we tried to get them to check the historical records to show our innocence, they said they had no history of any soul reapers or Soul King. As the years have passed, this village is the only group of soul reapers that remain in the world, and we operate in secret to avoid the World Government. Normal people don't even remember the term Soul Reaper nowadays." Looking at his watch, Onabara realized the time to end class had come. "That will be it for class today, tomorrow we have sword training, so make sure to be well-rested." he finished before walking back to his desk.

Hearing this the students began to stretch, feeling sore after sitting for such a long lecture. As they stood up, many made their way to Toshiro, wanting to get to know the new student, not realizing he was lost in thought.

Toshiro: 'Quite the interesting fusion of the two histories if I do say so myself' he thought as he was unknowingly being surrounded by the other students preparing to barrage him with questions.