Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of the Abyss and I don't own Bleach.

A/N: Just want to let it known that Luke will meet and associate himself with official Bleach characters starting at the Shino Academy.

Continuing After Luke's Death

In the World of Auldrant

In the Qliphoth, in Yulia City in Tear's room, Tear was in her room thinking about the tragedy that occurred. It had been two hours since Luke was killed at the railway of Yulia City and it happened on her watch and that didn't sit well with her. Mieu was on her bed depressed that his master was no longer among the living. It saddened the little cheagle greatly and hated the fact that there was nothing he could do about it. Tear saw Mieu and walked up to him.

"Mieu," Tear spoke.

"Mieuuu," Mieu responded sadly.

"I'm sorry, I wish there was something I could do."

Mieu started to shed tears, "Master's gone, what am I going to do? I miss him. Master saved me many times and yet I couldn't do anything to save him."

"It's my fault, I should have been able to stop Asch but I failed."

"Mieuuuuuu," Mieu was wailing.

Tears went to hug the little cheagle and thought about what happened between her and Luke.

Flashback: The deck of the Tartarus

"I was stupid to think you had some good in you," Tear said coldly to Luke as she walked away to join the others in the bridge.

Flashback End

Tear was just let go of Mieu and went her window that showed the selenia fields. She had her hand on her forehead.

Second Flashback: Walkway to Yulia City

Tear turned to face Luke and walked up a bit, "How long are you going to stand there? Everyone's gone to the mayor's house."

"All they're going to do is keep accusing of stuff," Luke whined, "I don't want to go."

"You're even more pathetic than I thought, reject!" Asch said in disgust as Luke and Tear saw the God-General.

Second Flashback End

Tear put her hand down on her side and shook her head, "If I had know that things would have ended like they did, I would've-"

Tear was interrupted by someone's voice.

"Hey, are you there?" Asch's voice called out.

Tear turned and Asch appeared before her.

"So you're here," Asch said, "I'm letting you know that we're going back to the Outer Lands."

Tear glared at Asch, "Asch…"

Asch didn't like the glare, "What? Are you still mad?"

Tear didn't say anything.

Asch continued, "Listen, what I did was completely justified. That dreck had it coming. It's because that replica didn't listen that Akzeriuth was destroyed and Van was able fulfill part of his goal."

"I don't want to hear it," Tear said coldly as she turned her back on Asch, "if there's nothing else then I want you to leave."

"So you're not going to come with us back to the Outer Lands, even if it's to find out what your brother is planning to do?" Asch said.

"I have my own assignment to complete. I have no reason to go help you," Tear responded.

Asch got annoyed, "Tch, fine, do what you want. I don't care."

Asch left Tear's room and Tear just stood on her spot angry and saddened.

Walkway of Yulia City

On one side of the walkway, Guy had his arms crossed angry and sad about what happened to Luke. He thought about how things were wrong in his eyes and wondered if he should just have his revenge like he intended to years ago when he entered House Fabre as a servant. Guy looked and saw Asch coming out of Tear's residence and there was Natalia there to greet him and he listened in.

Natalia faced Asch, "Oh, uh Asch, how are you?"

"I'm fine," Asch simply answered.

"Um, I wonder, do you remember me?" Natalia asked being hopeful.

Asch didn't say anything and that didn't sit well with Natalia.

"Um, it's okay…" Natalia said and Asch moved on and headed to a certain direction.

Asch then noticed that Guy was glaring at him and Anise was walking up to them.

"What are you glaring at?" Asch asked Guy.

"You, a murderer," Guy answered.

Asch got annoyed, "So that's how it's going to be?"

"You damn right it is."

Asch shook his head, "Whatever, I don't have time for this."

Asch left and Guy was watching him leave giving him a death glare.

"Guy, what's up with you?" Anise asked.

Guy looked at Anise, "Do you really need to ask Anise?"

"Are you really upset that Luke's gone?"

"Yes."

"But why? Luke was so stupid and he's the reason why a lot of people died in Akzeriuth. I admit that I like him because he was rich but to see how stupid he was, there's no way I could handle it," Anise shook her head, "I think Asch was justified."

"Anise, you're despicable," Guy said angrily.

Anise didn't like what Guy said, "Oh yeah, well that's your opinion. As far as I'm concerned, the world is better off without him."

Guy gave Anise a death glare and it actually made Anise nervous and she decided to walk away. Guy looked at Anise as she walked away.

Yulia City's Central Facility

Asch went walked up the ramp to go see the mayor and Asch saw Ion, the Fon Master of the Order of Lorelei and could tell that the Fon Master didn't like being in the city. Asch didn't want to be near Ion at the moment since after Asch killed Luke, Ion was demanding to know why Asch killed him. Asch, of course gave his reasons which included the fact that his replica killed a lot of people but Ion insisted that Asch still shouldn't have killed him.

"Are you satisfied?" A voice asked.

Asch turned and realized it was Jade Curtiss, "Oh, it's you."

"Well, are you satisfied?" Jade asked again.

"Satisfied?" Asch asked.

"Yes, are you satisfied that you killed your replica and now the one you believe stole everything from you is now dead," Jade pushed his glasses.

"Are you going to tell me that I was wrong as well?"

"Whether it was right or wrong has no bearing to me, I'm just curious if your feel satisfied that you eliminated your replica," Jade pointed out.

"…I don't have time for this," Asch said as he walked past Jade and telling him, "We should be able to get back to the Outer Lands."

Jade nodded, "That's true, with Akzeriuth's Sephiroth, it should be possible that it will be able to give one last push."

"Exactly."

Yulia City's Council Room

Asch went inside and met with the mayor of Yulia City, a Maestro of the Order of Lorelei, Teodoro Grants.

"What do you think of the Qliphoth?" Teodoro asked.

"It's just as I heard," Asch replied, "not very pleasant."

"The miasma and Outer Land cover the sky. The land is a liquefied crust flowing over the mantle. It's no place for human beings to live."

Asch got curious and decided to ask, "Why don't you move to the Outer Lands?"

"You know our role," Teodoro answered, "we are the watchers. We cannot leave this land."

"So I hear there may be a way to raise the Tartarus back to the Outer Lands?"

Teodoro nodded, "We've attached a fonon activator to the Tartarus similar to those used by the passage rings. It should be able to stimulate Akzeriuth's Sephiroth and the raise the tree one final time."

"Then we ride the Sephiroth Tree back to the surface, huh?"

"Exactly, but do you really need the landship that badly?"

Asch got annoyed at that question, "I wouldn't have asked if we didn't."

Teodoro shrugged, "All right, then would you like to head to the Tartarus right now?"

Asch nodded, "Yes."

"Then let's go."

Teodoro and Asch left the meeting room to go to the Tartarus.

Tartarus's Bridge

The people that were in the bridge were Asch, Natalia, Anise, Jade, and Ion. Guy wasn't among them in the bridge since Guy refused to travel anywhere with Asch. Natalia tried to convince Guy otherwise even saying that Guy was Luke's attendant and friend and that the real Luke was Asch. Guy countered the Kimlascan princess's statement by saying that Asch may be the real Luke but his friend was the Luke that Asch murdered. Natalia decided to give up as she realized that Guy wasn't going to change his mind and her, Asch, Jade, Anise, and Ion just left Guy in Yulia City.

"Can we run a landship this size with only four people?" Asch asked.

"Only with the bare minimum maneuverability," Jade answered.

"Sephiroth are the pillars that support our Outer Lands, right?" Anise spoke, "How are we going to use that to get back up?"

"The Sephiroth are places where the planet's fonons are concentrated and memory particles spout forth," Ion informed, "The pillars—Sephiroth Tree—are the result of artificially strengthening those memory particle spouts."

"So in other words, we will be pushed up by memory particles," Natalia deduced.

"We'll temporarily stimulate the Sephiroth and catch the memory particle spout with the Tartarus's sails," Jade said.

"I hope it works," Natalia said worried.

"Don't worry," Asch spoke, "Begin!"

They activated the fonon activator and the Tartarus was pushed up the memory particles, using Akzeriuth's Sephiroth to go up and they made it back up to the Outer Lands with the glow of a tree showing.

"Looks like we made it up," Jade said.

"I can't believe this is floating in mid-air," Natalia said.

"So, exactly what is the plan right now?" Anise asked.

"We can get information at Fon Machine Lab 1 in Belkend. Van goes there often," Asch replied.

Anise was surprised, "He does?"

"I misunderstood Van's objective. We'll have to uncover his activities to find out what he's really after."

"I want you to take Ion and me back to Daath."

"We'll take you back once we're done. I need bodies here to operate the Tartarus."

"Aahh, can't you use some of your own troops?" Anise whined.

Asch ignored Anise's whining, "I can't, everything I do would be leaked to Van."

"I don't see any problem with helping Asch," Natalia said, "We too need to know Van's true objective."

"Natalia is right," Ion said although internally he wasn't thrilled to be around Asch.

Anise decided to go along for now, "If you say so Ion, then I'll go along."

"I have something I want to confirm as well," Jade said, "I'll cooperate with Asch for the time being."

Asch nodded, "Belkend is to the east. Now get to work."

They started to pilot the Tartarus and headed for Belkend to get clues of Van's objective.

In the Soul Society

Luke was walking in the forest collecting his thoughts. He was still amazed when he saw the size of the Seireitei.

"The Seireitei…Shinigami…" Luke muttered.

Luke thought about his life when he was alive in Auldrant and he couldn't help but to reflect back on his ignorance. He was thinking about how he acted when he was going to Akzeriuth thinking that the others didn't matter since he was sure he would be the great hero.

Luke couldn't but to chuckle sadly, "A hero, me?" Luke shook his head, "I was nothing more than a pawn for Master Van. He never cared about me. All he saw me was a tool. Well, at least I'm not there for the others to tell me that they hate me," Luke started to get depress, mostly about what happened at Akzeriuth and the death toll because the pillar he destroyed, "I have to change and be a better person. I know it will never make up for what I've done but I know that I need to be a better person. Maybe I can start by helping out here in Amana," Luke rubbed his head, "of course I don't know how or where to start…hmm…I should ask Toji."

Luke decided to go to Toji's hut and ask him and on his way he felt some sort of pressure that was weighing him down a little bit.

"What is this feeling?" Luke asked himself.

"Sorry about that," a voice said, "are you okay?"

Luke looked around and then on his left said he saw someone. The person was a man that had long navy blue hair that went down to his upper back and green eyes that wore glasses and a standard Shihakusho and his katana wearing it on his left side of his sash.

"By the way you looked, you must have felt my Spiritual Pressure," the man said.

"Spiritual Pressure?" Luke asked.

"Yeah," the man walked up to Luke, "that tells me that you have some spirit energy."

"Spirit Energy, oh yeah, Toji was telling me something like that," Luke said.

"I hope you don't mind me saying this, I visit Amana as often as I can and I've never seen you here before," the man said.

"Oh yeah, I'm new here," Luke answered and then smiled, "My name is Luke."

"Luke, huh? Interesting, I'm Jinkuro, Jinkuro Tsumeragi. I'm a Shinigami."

"It's nice to meet you Jinkuro," Luke then paused and thought of something, "say, you said that you visit Amana as often that you can. Did you actually from here?"

Jinkuro nodded, "That's right."

"Then you must be the Shinigami Toji told me about."

"I see he's been talking about me."

"A little, he showed me around here in Amana. Actually, if you don't mind, I have some questions about what's it's like to be a Shinigami."

Jinkuro raised his eyebrow, "Hmm? Are you interested?"

"I don't know but I figured that I should learn things and not be ignorant like I was before. Will tell about being a Shinigami, the Seireitei and its government and armed forces?"

Jinkuro had his hand on his chin and then he nodded, "Okay Luke, I'll tell but only on things that I know. I'm here to visit so walk with me and I'll tell you some things."

Luke smiled, "Thanks Jinkuro."

Luke and Jinkuro started walking together heading to the small community.

That's it for this chapter. Next chapter: A Hollow appears and attacks the people of District 62 and Luke's skills and his innate power aids him.