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Yumichika never expected the afterlife to be just as lousy as what had come before it. When he learned that he had to die to escape from this shithole and get back to the world of the living, Yumichika vowed to himself to die as soon as possible. Maybe this time he would not be reborn a poor peasant with the absolutely unfitting longing for art and beauty. Though deep inside, Yumichika would have even agreed to be a lowborn commoner again, just without any aspirations above his station. Of course, now the thought of him working in the field, tending to animals and not caring about the meaning of beauty in nature and life was enough to make him gag, but after the rebirth he wouldn’t have any memories of his previous self, so it would be… an acceptable lot in life.
However, committing suicide for the second time in a row was not an option. There was nothing beautiful, artistic or romantic about it, in fact, death was incredibly ugly. Yumichika was watching his dead body for weeks, and it wasn’t strange or traumatising. It was… enlightening. A lesson about the ugliness of mortal existence and non-existence that had found its end when that fellow who had called himself a Shinigami had come and sent Yumichika’s soul to this abhorrent “Soul Society”.
Still, even if suicide was not an option, finding death in this stinky hole shouldn’t prove awfully difficult. People here were monsters and the muddy ground was an interesting shade of red brown from all the blood that was spilled in fights and slaughter. Yumichika decided that it was now or never: he would come up to that big guy over there and say something insulting, that his face looked like a rotten watermelon or whatever. That should be more than enough for this whole ordeal to end quickly.
It did indeed end quickly, though not in a way Yumichika had anticipated. One half-hearted punch of his made a literal hole in his opponent’s chest. The street was suddenly empty and Yumichika was left standing there, one on one with his dying adversary. It was… actually beautiful. Apparently, the way a soul died was very different from the way a body died: no rigor mortis, no putrefaction, no unpleasant smell, nothing that Yumichika had seen happen to his body before. Instead, the soul just turned into silvery dust and was swept away by a gust of wind into the sky. Even the fact that the guy’s face really did look like a rotten watermelon didn’t spoil that moment of pure poetry, and so Yumichika realised that this world might not be that bad after all. He certainly didn’t want to leave it now, for there was true beauty to be found here. It was his duty as an artist to reveal this beauty to the world, hidden away in those ugly and monstrous souls, only visible at the time of their death. So, if he had to kill them to let it show, so be it.
***
“Oi! I was told you are the strongest one here. That a couple of days ago you fought three bandits single-handedly and won! I challenge you to a battle! To the death!”
An obnoxiously loud man appeared out of nowhere in front of Yumichika, who was just walking back home, startling him. Without as much as a hello, he went on and on about how they totally needed to fight each other to determine who was stronger.
Now, to an unsophisticated observer this ragged vagabond might have appeared ugly or even somewhat laughable. One could have pointed out the lack of hair on his head or eyes set a bit too close together, only to show their absolute ignorance in the matters of beauty. Yumichika, of course, knew better than that. Yesterday he had happened to see this guy fight in the local tavern and had been thoroughly fascinated by the graceful way the man moved, by the fire that burned in his eyes, by the glow of his skin in the heat of the battle and by the scars on his body that made him look so wonderfully dangerous. In fact, it was the first time Yumichika saw someone so beautiful in this shithole of a place and the fact that this guy was standing in front of him now demanding a fight to the death was annoying Yumichika greatly.
“No,” Yumichika said curtly. “I do not accept your challenge.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” He could see the incomprehension in his challenger’s eyes. “You’re strong. I’m strong. We have to fight!”
“No.”
“And why not? You’d better explain yourself!”
“Because,” Yumichika rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion, “I only kill the ugly ones. By doing this, I rid this world of the necessity to tolerate their existence and give them their only opportunity to be beautiful, even if it’s just for a few seconds. So… sorry, but you are not ugly and, therefore, you don’t deserve me bestowing this gift upon you.”
While his conversation partner was trying to make sense of this declaration, Yumichika used the moment of silence to slip into his hut and close the door. He really hoped that the man would just leave him alone after this.
However, a major disappointment was awaiting Yumichika in the morning: the moment he opened the door, he bumped right into the by now familiar face.
“Were you sleeping on my doorstep?” Yumichika blurted out, annoyed.
“So what if I did?” The other man defended himself aggressively. “You were saying some weird shit yesterday, and I decided that maybe you’d make more sense in the morning.”
Yumichika couldn’t help but feel flattered that this beautiful man was waiting here all night just to talk to him again. It was… exciting.
“My answer has not changed: I am not going to fight you to the death. In fact, I am leaving this town today.”
“Where to?”
“East,” Yumichika said the first thing that came to his mind.
He wasn’t at all planning on leaving, he just wanted to get rid of the intruder, but the other man kept standing there, so there was nothing left for Yumichika to do, except go back to his hut, collect his things and actually leave… erm, East?
All the time while Yumichika was packing his few belongings together, his obnoxious challenger stood in the doorway and kept staring at him, which made Yumichika smirk contentedly. He knew exactly how graceful his movements were and secretly hoped that the other man would notice it. After all, the beautiful ones had to pay attention to each other, since there were so few of them in this dreadful place.
Yumichika proudly brushed past the man on his way out, still basking in the fact that his challenger was watching him intently, and took a road to the left. In a few moments, however, he heard a chuckle from behind.
“I see you have no clue where East is.”
Yumichika blushed. He turned around and exclaimed, irritated, “Oh and you do?!”
“Nah,” the other man shrugged. “But at least I don’t pretend like I have a goal when I don’t even know what I’m doing.”
Yumichika opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted in the most unceremonious fashion.
“Hey you two! We know you, you both killed some of our people last week. Didn’t think you knew each other, but all the better, gonna get two birds with one stone!”
Yumichika was pleased to see that his conversation partner was just as annoyed by this intrusion as he was.
“Name’s Madarame Ikkaku. There’s two of them and two of us. And I think they’re idiots for believing they could take us on.”
“I am Ayasegawa Yumichika. And I absolutely agree with you. The fellow to the right is mine.”
“Hey, he is way more handsome than me!”
“First of all, it’s about beauty, not handsomeness,” there was a lot of contempt for the base things in the way Yumichika said that last word. “And second, his hair may be long and wavy, but its colour of baby poo really does offend my sense of beauty.”
Yumichika bared his sword, assuming his most graceful battle stance.
“Haha, now that you say it… Sure looks like baby poo,” Ikkaku’s laughter rang through the streets as he threw himself into the fray.
***
Kenpachi from Zaraki. Yumichika knew that Ikkaku would now dedicate all his life to finding this man again in order to fight him once more. Yumichika also knew that he was not going to leave his friend alone in this. It was his duty to follow Ikkaku and help him find that fight his heart ached for so much.
They had been travelling together for several years now, looking for worthy opponents, fighting their respective fights and taking care of each other in the meantime. It turned out that they were both fighting for very different reasons and looked for very different kinds of opponents, so they never had to argue about whose turn it was to kick ass. While one of them was in battle, the other was always nearby, watching intently, but never interfering. Today, however, it had been so hard for Yumichika to just stand aside. It had been a beautiful fight and if Ikkaku had died, it would have been a beautiful death, but then, for the first time in Yumichika’s life, beauty would have shattered his heart to pieces.
Ikkaku was not going to die, however. His wounds were quite deep and would leave scars behind, but those would only make Ikkaku look even nobler in his special kind of beauty. Blood was still colouring the bandages that Yumichika was applying to those wounds and he was mesmerised to watch how the red colour was soaked into the dirty white of the cloth. Despite his weakness and the loss of blood, Ikkaku’s black eyes looked so alive on his pale face, and it made Yumichika’s pulse race.
“Now even you wouldn’t think of calling me beautiful, Yumichika,” Ikkaku laughed softly.
“You are wrong,” Yumichika countered seriously.
He looked around as if searching for something specific in this almost fallen apart abandoned house they stayed in tonight. Yumichika stood up and went to pick up a little chunk of brick from the dirty floor. He crushed it in his hand to carmine dust and bowed down to the surprised Ikkaku, only to draw two lines on his face with it, from the corner of each eye upwards. He leaned back for a couple of moments to admire his work and then said, “Now you are perfect.”
“You’re a strange fellow, Yumichika,” Ikkaku sighed. “But you know, it’s been a while since I’ve wanted to fight you to the death. Now I think, the world without you would be so…”
“Ugly?”
“Yeah…” Ikkaku agreed after a little pause. “Yeah, I guess so.”
When their lips finally touched, it was… right. Exactly the way it was supposed to be. Ikkaku realised that life was not the only gift luck had presented him with today. And Yumichika realised that no matter how beautiful the death of a soul could be, love would always overshadow it, even in the ugliest of scenery.