Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Objective Truth, Subjective Wisdom ❯ Dyeing in Indigo ( Chapter 1 )
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By: seoinage 
Indigo dyes everything...
(Spoilers up through manga chater 178)
Anime/Manga: Bleach Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Psychological | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.10.2005 | Updated On: 07.31.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.5K | Visits: 558 | Status: Completed
Indigo dyes everything...
(Spoilers up through manga chater 178)
Anime/Manga: Bleach Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Psychological | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.10.2005 | Updated On: 07.31.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.5K | Visits: 558 | Status: Completed
Title: Objective Truth, Subjective Wisdom
Author: Seoinage
Series: Bleach
Genre: Drama / Angst / Psychological
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up through manga chapter 169 and anime episode 22
Summary: Soul Society, Earth, and Hell. Who would dare mess with the balance?
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Bleach © Kubo Taite and the various companies who has rights to it.
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Chapter: 1: Dyeing in Indigo
The exact moment I came to be in this existence of recycled souls and balancers shall forever be etched onto me. It marked the day truth opened not my eyes, but blinded me. For I had been cast from nirvana and the side of the one I served into the quagmire of Soul Society.
`Serve them and you will serve me. There is no wall, no separation between you and I. Love as you have always done so. Enlighten as you have always done so. Guard as you have always done so. You are my objective truth, and they have need of you.' said the Master.
So in love, truth, and obedience I gave no argument and bowed my head, accepting of all things asked of me. For that was The Way.
I came to be on this plane of limbo, assigned a duty I had performed before on the plane of earth. It should be no different, though I prepared myself in case that was not so. Humanity was like that.
At the tug on my sleeve I looked down to see the soul of a boy tilting his face curiously up at me. He was young, this one.
I smiled, even though his eye could not see, and asked, “What can I do for you?”
The lad tilted his head back further at the sound of my voice, new and strange to him. Dirt edged his worn kimono and smudged his naturally dark skin. “Mister, are you new here?”
Finding myself towering over him, I knelt down to his level and nodded solemnly. “I just arrived and don't know my way. Could I bother you to help me?”
White eyes considered my own toffee colored ones for a blind moment. Then a small hand slipped into mine. “Sure!”
For awhile I resided with the boy, learning about the place I had been sent to. By listening and exploring, I found out that we were in the outskirts known as Rukongai. Not surprising to me, it served as a holding place for all souls with the ability to undergo a new cycle of life on earth. Most souls did just that, slipping through life and death countless times over, never attaining enlightenment to break the cycle.
It must be said that very few souls attained enlightenment.
Extensive in size to accommodate all the souls waiting for their next cycle, Rukongai was further subdivided into districts of varying degrees. If one walked through the outskirts trying to find an end, only failure would meet them. Circles have no end, after all, trapping all in.
In the middle of the circular outskirts laid the inner city, a walled off place stuck on human principals of order, control, laws, desires, needs, wants… You could say that they were just stuck, but could not see that fact. It served a purpose, however, being the command center of Soul Society.
Those with the requisite spiritual power and ability to harness it could become shinigami, the balancers of life and death. They trained and existed in their citadel, for a time breaking the seemingly endless cycle of humanity.
Even in Soul Society where death is the state of being for all, I recognized that human emotions, fears, and desires hold sway. Even in death, hierarchies prevailed, violence occurred, and hunger still known. Human souls brought suffering along with them through death and distorted this existence from what it had been.
My Master sent me and I knew what I needed to do, which route to take.
Having found the silver and dark parts of my framework in Rukongai, I entered the shinigami academy to undergo training for my new role. Not before long, a white robe of rank settled around my shoulders, a division calling me their captain.
“Aizen-taichou, it's time to find a suitable vice captain for the Fifth Division.”
“Yes,” I agreed pleasantly. Yes, the time drew near for the finishing of the framework.
The path of salvation cannot be seen from the bottom or the top, for looking from those positions will only yield an unbroken circle with no beginning and no end. However, to view the path from any of its circular sides would reveal its shape as that of a spiral to lift man up into enlightenment.
If one with no desire for the path were to look upwards from the bottom, the circle will appear. Earth represented the bottom.
If one who thought the path conquered looked downwards from the top, the circle will appear. Soul Society represented the top.
Few understand that it was from the sides, not the bottom or the top, that man needed to look from to gain enlightenment. Should they seek the path seriously and step to the side, the spiral will appear before them.
My duty was to reveal the spiral path. My goal was to change emotions such as love into the pure desire to seek enlightenment. My oath was to share the objective truth that nirvana was not another realm but the true reality of the world of birth and death.
Things needed to be changed.
“Show me the listing of candidates for the vice captain position.” I ordered and readjusted the glasses perched on my nose as the piece of paper was quickly handed over.
Over time, I have seen much with these eyes. Inversely however, the more I witnessed, the weaker my vision got while in this plane of existence. Somewhere along the way, glasses became a part of the persona that dyed me in indigo.
“Taichou, as you see, the first choice is Ichimaru Gin…”
I smiled. One part of the framework laid already proved strong.
`Serve them and you will serve me. There is no wall, no separation between you and I. Love as you have always done so. Enlighten as you have always done so. Guard as you have always done so. You are my objective truth, and they have need of you.' said the Master.
So in love, truth, and obedience I gave no argument and bowed my head, accepting of all things asked of me. For that was The Way.
I came to be on this plane of limbo, assigned a duty I had performed before on the plane of earth. It should be no different, though I prepared myself in case that was not so. Humanity was like that.
At the tug on my sleeve I looked down to see the soul of a boy tilting his face curiously up at me. He was young, this one.
I smiled, even though his eye could not see, and asked, “What can I do for you?”
The lad tilted his head back further at the sound of my voice, new and strange to him. Dirt edged his worn kimono and smudged his naturally dark skin. “Mister, are you new here?”
Finding myself towering over him, I knelt down to his level and nodded solemnly. “I just arrived and don't know my way. Could I bother you to help me?”
White eyes considered my own toffee colored ones for a blind moment. Then a small hand slipped into mine. “Sure!”
For awhile I resided with the boy, learning about the place I had been sent to. By listening and exploring, I found out that we were in the outskirts known as Rukongai. Not surprising to me, it served as a holding place for all souls with the ability to undergo a new cycle of life on earth. Most souls did just that, slipping through life and death countless times over, never attaining enlightenment to break the cycle.
It must be said that very few souls attained enlightenment.
Extensive in size to accommodate all the souls waiting for their next cycle, Rukongai was further subdivided into districts of varying degrees. If one walked through the outskirts trying to find an end, only failure would meet them. Circles have no end, after all, trapping all in.
In the middle of the circular outskirts laid the inner city, a walled off place stuck on human principals of order, control, laws, desires, needs, wants… You could say that they were just stuck, but could not see that fact. It served a purpose, however, being the command center of Soul Society.
Those with the requisite spiritual power and ability to harness it could become shinigami, the balancers of life and death. They trained and existed in their citadel, for a time breaking the seemingly endless cycle of humanity.
Even in Soul Society where death is the state of being for all, I recognized that human emotions, fears, and desires hold sway. Even in death, hierarchies prevailed, violence occurred, and hunger still known. Human souls brought suffering along with them through death and distorted this existence from what it had been.
My Master sent me and I knew what I needed to do, which route to take.
Having found the silver and dark parts of my framework in Rukongai, I entered the shinigami academy to undergo training for my new role. Not before long, a white robe of rank settled around my shoulders, a division calling me their captain.
“Aizen-taichou, it's time to find a suitable vice captain for the Fifth Division.”
“Yes,” I agreed pleasantly. Yes, the time drew near for the finishing of the framework.
The path of salvation cannot be seen from the bottom or the top, for looking from those positions will only yield an unbroken circle with no beginning and no end. However, to view the path from any of its circular sides would reveal its shape as that of a spiral to lift man up into enlightenment.
If one with no desire for the path were to look upwards from the bottom, the circle will appear. Earth represented the bottom.
If one who thought the path conquered looked downwards from the top, the circle will appear. Soul Society represented the top.
Few understand that it was from the sides, not the bottom or the top, that man needed to look from to gain enlightenment. Should they seek the path seriously and step to the side, the spiral will appear before them.
My duty was to reveal the spiral path. My goal was to change emotions such as love into the pure desire to seek enlightenment. My oath was to share the objective truth that nirvana was not another realm but the true reality of the world of birth and death.
Things needed to be changed.
“Show me the listing of candidates for the vice captain position.” I ordered and readjusted the glasses perched on my nose as the piece of paper was quickly handed over.
Over time, I have seen much with these eyes. Inversely however, the more I witnessed, the weaker my vision got while in this plane of existence. Somewhere along the way, glasses became a part of the persona that dyed me in indigo.
“Taichou, as you see, the first choice is Ichimaru Gin…”
I smiled. One part of the framework laid already proved strong.
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A/N: The kanji used for “aizen” means indigo dye. Indigo can mean “dark blue” or can refer to the natural plant that can be made into a dye used to color cloth into that specific color of blue. Indigo, if undiluted, does not absorb very easily into the strands of a fabric. Thus indigo is normally diluted, but that forces the dyeing process to be repeated until the color is dark enough to be called `indigo'. One must be very patient to get the color of indigo.