BLEACH: The Dusk In Red

A lonely black mansion waited quietly in the suburbs. Despite how pristine and clean all the other homes around it were, this was the only one stubborn enough to not change with them.

Its Architecture was outdated as its wooden walls were visibly starting to rot and erode, threatening to crumble down the entire place at any moment. Yet despite looking so shaky, so vulnerable, especially during a time where fires were running rampant, and yet, it was perhaps the safest home in this whole town.

Alone teenager approached it with a rather grim look. It was one that you would make when forcing yourself to do something you used to hate.

Hyoma entered the home, and was immediately greeted to the large family painting, overlooking the whole house from across the grand hall. And standing in front of it, was his father.

He looked just the same as before, with his usual black suit, and old age visibly showing.

"Happy birthday Hyoma."

He was a little stunted for a second. He hadn't expected to hear that first from his father of all people, and yet he did not care. Whatever father and son relationship they had was long gone, and unsurprisingly, he understood this too.

"I want to hear it now. Will you or will you not take on our family's duty?"

For a brief moment, he hesitated. After this there would be no going back. And then he finally spoke,

"I will."

The father went quiet for a couple moments. For a second, he looked like he regretted asking his son that question, and then he simply commanded,

"Follow me."

Something about him changed when he said that. He couldn't quite put it into words how, but he felt like the man standing before him was no longer pretending to act like his father, and instead acted like the head of the Suzuko family,

Mugen Suzuko.

He then began to ascend up the right side of the stairs, and entered through a door into the upper right wing of the house, which Hyoma followed him through.

This part of the house was actually forbidden. Although Bashira's room was on the bottom floor, he spent most of his time here whenever he was in the house.

As the two walked through the bizarrely empty corridor, Mugen began to talk.

"You can see the dead already, can't you?"

Hyoma flinched hardly.

"The doors that were next to your room, those belong to any guests that may be staying with us. Their spiritual in nature so the mundane can't see or even interact with them. I can sense the presence and location of anything in this house, so I knew right away when you both of them."

"So you knew the whole time?? Hang on.. guests??"

Once the two finally reached the end of that corridor, only the hatch to the attic above remained. With a snap of his fathers fingers, it opened letting a row of ladders fall down from the deep darkness. Mugen began to climb up them first, while Hyoma followed behind him.

They climbed into that darkness, and then they climbed, and then they kept climbing. The darkness was deep, far too deep, far deeper then it should've been. Was the space in the attic also twisted? just like the guest rooms?

"Guests.. you know how our family are the assistance of death gods? But it would be more accurate to call them Soul Reapers."

"Soul Reapers? They're the guests staying in those rooms?"

"Yes. Our family, the Suzuko family has three duties. Soul Reapers stay in the living world to purify hollows. They may get hurt, or have long missions in the living world, so we act as a refuge for them.."

In the time they spent climbing up the ladder, Mugen took his time to explain how the basics of how spiritual world worked to Hyoma. What the Soul Reapers were, what they did, the purpose of Soul Society, and the dreadful hollows they slayed.

"Our family ancestors had the same uniform as them? What did that mean?"

"Our ancestors used to be Soul Reapers too. However they willingly moved to the living world to fulfil a duty that no others could accomplish. As we remained here, we gradually began to mingle with the humans, and eventually we became one of them. Despite that however, our mission remains unchanged."

And finally, the two emerged from the darkness, and climbed out into a large attic. The only source of light was the giant circular glass window which the light of the moon and stars seemed to shine through. 

The floor was wooden and creaky, and in the centre of the attic, was a strange chalk symbol that Hyoma did not understand. The thing that caught his eye however, was the giant mass of dark liquid floating above it.

It was spherical, appearing around 2 metres in diameter. It wasn't a perfect sphere, as ripples appeared around it here and there, mimicking what appeared to be... a heart beat? And even further inside thar dark liquid, there appeared to be something indiscernible. 

Just looking at it made Hyoma feel awfully nauseated, and a little sick.

"What the hell is that?"

Suddenly, Mugen grew extremely angry at the boy.

"WATCH YOUR TONE BOY! HOW DARE YOU SPEAK LIKE THAT OF OUR KING!?"

Hyoma was a little shocked at how quickly Mugen changed. He had never heard him shout like that before, even after his siter died. He then cleared his voice as he calmed down a little.

"Boy, you don't know any better, but don't you dare refer to him like that while in his presence. You've already destroyed your bond with him enough."

"Destroy what bond?? I've never seen him in my entire life! And please, I would remember if I ever met... that!?"

Mugen was about to shout again, but realizing it would be futile, he spared himself of the effort.

"Say it right now. The name of the lord that we pray to."

Amongst the weird stuff his father used to make him do, praying was one of them. But not to any ordinary god humans were familiar with, but rather a king.

"Hang on.. that king? He's real?? Adnyeus?"

The second he said that name, the mass of liquid seemed to change a little. The constant beat of its ripples grew disfigured, as if it was trying to talk.. no, it wanted to scream.

"Hyoma, the person who stands before you is our king, and yet he isn't. It is a sacred relic forged from him that was given to this family. It's purpose, is to grant power. We call it the Tetragrammaton."

"Forged.. from him?"

"That is right. The Soul King's blood is said to have the power to grant form to the formless, and his lungs posses the ability to breathe life into the inanimate. By combining those two powers, new life that can learn and grow can be created. That is the Tetragrammaton. It is the power to create and grant a Shikigami to only the members and of the Suzuko family."

The Tetragrammaton was a tool forged from the Soul King. One that could grant a strange power outside of the norm for even Soul Society. Something entirely new, and at the same time, old and forgotten.

Mugen then suddenly gestured for Hyoma to walk towards it, which he hesitantly did. Once he got a little over 2m close to it, a strange light began to shine from the middle of the sphere of black blood.

The strange shape at it's centre was made clear, revealing the pair of lungs at the centre. It seemed they were motionless at first, but then it started to expand and contract, like gears in a machine starting to move after countless years of neglect.

The light at the centre grew brighter, until it quickly started to dim, being contained in the liquid. Next, the light concentrated into a sphere, before slowly moving out of it, and gently landing on Hyoma's chest.

A warm feeling began to course through his body, as a wellspring of power he had never felt before began to explode. It felt so great, that it disoriented the boy, making him dizzy as he tripped onto the floor.

"I don't feel.. what?"

Slowly arising, Hyoma turned around and looked at his father, not sure of what to say. The father however, let out a sigh of disappointment as he said,

"We'll.. it seems its a weak one."

"Huh?!"