Iris Potter and the Soul Enigma

Prelude

Feeling. She suddenly had feelings, pain, stiffness, hunger. Iris opened one eye carefully and instantly regretted it, for the bright glare of the sun sent her into fresh pangs of pain.

Sighing, Iris slowly sat up and stretched her sore limbs, placing a hand over her forehead she opened her eyes again, slowly this time. Blinking over the sudden light, it took a while for the light to adjust and what she saw took Iris' breath away.

"I must be in heaven!" Iris thought excitedly, but then realized that was stupid when her stomached rumbled more forcefully this time, "I doubt I'd be hungry in heaven, must still be alive, but... How?". The last thing she remembered was talking to Dumbledore in the strange King's Cross facsimile after getting hit by Voldemort's Killing Curse.

However, the scenery in front of her looked utterly divine, rolling hills of fresh grass and wild flowers and snow capped mountains as far as the eye could see, the sky the brightest blue she had ever seen, with nary a wisp of a cloud in sight. The temperature felt warm and a pleasantly cool breeze would occasionally carry stray leaves in intricate patterns around her, if this wasn't heaven it was a good approximation.

Iris was interrupted out of her reverie by the sounds of rustling clothes behind her, she spun her head around and beheld a strange sight. An old man was sitting behind her in the lotus position, legs crossed and hands wresting on his knees. He was wearing a robe that looked Asian in origin that was light blue in colour, and faded in places. Iris looked up and saw his face in greater detail, it was Asian in decent like his robes, kind black eyes squinted at her from beneath enormous thick white eyebrows, he had a short nose and a flowing white beard, not unlike Dumbledore's, that contrasted heavily with his bald head, giving him the appearance of a wise sage.

"Welcome child, to Soul Society." he rumbled with a deep rich voice.

Iris blinked, then blinked again, making sure she heard him correctly. He spoke a different language, but she understood it perfectly. Her face must of betrayed her confusion because the old man chuckled warmly, his beard twitched, and Iris knew from experience that meant he was smiling. Iris returned his smile with a crooked one of her own, she started to bring her rudimentary Occlumency skills to bare and try and strangle her raging emotions into submission.

"Soul Society? So I am dead then..." she answered eventually, desperately trying not to cry, she thought back to her friends who she would never see again, for little Teddy who would never know his Godmother, or mother, or father... Too late, a single tear slipped through her grasp, opening the damn for the others, they rushed like a river across her face, hot and forceful. Iris spun around to try and avoid embarrassing herself around the stranger, but the old man was quicker and grabbed her, hugging her gently, Iris gave up the futile struggle and collapsed into his thin arms, sobbing and waling, letting her dejected soul scream it's anguish.

The old man didn't say anything, either he was wise enough not to or awkward around a crying female, judging by the calming noises he made or the soothing motions with his hands, it was the former. Eventually Iris bled out of emotion, stifling a final sniffle, she slowly extracted herself out of the old man's arms, shuffling away from him she started brushing her clothes, the same brilliantly white robes that appeared for her in King's Cross, now dirty with dirt and wet with tears.

"I'm sorry." she whispered, unable to look him in the eyes. "Nonsense! Everyone cries when they come here, it's only natural, and yes, I'm afraid you are dead, miss...?" he trailed off, but the question was evident.

"Ugh... Potter Iris, pleased to meet you." Iris was very curious why she subconsciously switched her last name for her first. "Must be a quirk of this new language." she deduced.

"Potter? Very strange name, you must not be from Japan then, but that's nothing bad, surely, a little spice is best now an then in the great Ramen of life!" the old man boomed joyfully, on the mention of Ramen her stomached rumbled again, this time with the force of an enraged Hippogriff.

Iris blushed, and tried to stand up but fell awkwardly onto the old man, who caught her gracefully, her blush deepened further. "Hoho!" The old man boomed, "Hungry are we? This is good! It means you have powerful spirit energy inside of you, let me carry you to the village and see if I can find something for you Potter-chan!"

With that he quickly picked her up and started carrying her bridal style, off towards a mysterious village within a mysterious land of the dead, where people are hungry and old Japanese men that are crazier than the British ones.

"What the hell have I gotten myself into this time?"

This is an experiment to see if I can keep this going long term, I'm trying to improve as a writer and my biggest crutch right now is sticking with a single story, I have tons of ideas but that's about it.

This chapter is short because it's the prelude, the rest of the story takes place hundreds of years later, when the Bleach story officially starts.