Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

He fell, coherent thoughts deteriorating as he felt the grass beneath him. The foul stench of human blood tainted the air, and he was faintly aware of sadistic laughter. The receding vision that his eyes captured showed him the blurry image of his opponent before the darkness took him completely and he passed out.

When Ichigo Kurosaki woke, he wasn't quite expecting to see what he did. He was expecting to see… well, something much different than white-washed ceiling and walls. He sat up abruptly, and two things took his breath away. First, he had no sign of the injury that had felled him what seemed like only moments ago. Secondly, when was he last in a modern day human bedroom that reminded him of… his… his bedroom? With a soft gasp that seemed uncharacteristic, he stood and walked the length of the room, therefore confirming that it was indeed his own. A thought then ran through his mind.

Is this a dream? I could've sworn I was… Rukia? He walked what he would have liked to call calmly to his closet and slid the door open at a normal pace. Everything was as a normal, tidy, un-lived-in closet should look like, without a trace of life whatsoever. Ichigo frowned, and closed the door. He looked under his bed, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Normally one wishes for things to be completely normal, but in this case, Ichigo was practically begging some unseen force that Rukia was here, that everything that happened in the Soul Society was just a horrible dream.

He checked every crevice, nook and cranny of his room, but to no avail. There was nothing he could even remotely relate to Rukia, or Kon, for that matter. Nothing whatsoever, and in all honesty, it upset him. Was she made up too? A dream inside a dream? Or was this a dream? Was his home born of his imagination, as though his subconscious was trying to tell him something, something important. But what, if that was even… His brain hurt, so he cut off thought. Maybe there was something useful downstairs. As if on cue, his stomach growled. Like food…

He slowly made his way downstairs, treating the floor like glass and carefully treading along in his socks. He'd missed normal socks, those tabi were annoying as hell. When he cautiously came into the kitchen, Yuzu looked up from the pan of rice she was fussing over and smiled. "Morning Nii-san. Did you get a goodnights rest?" She asked him politely as she deposited the rice into four little bowls, pouring some thick beef & gravy stew over them.

He frowned. Now it was… yes, this was a dream, he was sure of it. Now to wake up. Sleeping in front of an enemy was never good for ones health. He sat down before another thought popped into his mind with a sort of urgency that he didn't think it would ever get. Kisuke's shop! It had to be there. It had to. He stood up so quickly that the chair tumbled down behind him, causing Yuzu to cry out.

"Ichigo!" She rarely used his name. "What are you doing?"

"I just remembered I have something I have to do! I'll see you later!" With that, he took off, completely forgetting to put shoes on.

-x-x-x-x-

He couldn't believe his eyes. Urahara Shoten simply did not exist. No nutty shopkeeper, no talking cat, no abnormally large man with an ass made out of iron. No little children with giant weapons or odd abilities or dreams of playing baseball. Nope, just a Health & Fitness shop. Wonderful. The one time I actually want to see him.

Some people passing by during the usual foot traffic of a Monday morning paused to wonder about the orange-haired youth who's mouth hung open like he couldn't believe the vitamins in the store window he was staring at were on sale. He gaped for about five more minutes before something horrible registered. School. Was it still summer vacation? He honestly took a moment to ponder if he'd prefer staring at a textbook or being shredded to bits by a Zanpakuto. Probably a textbook, but there was room for debate. He decided he'd go back—rather, race back home to check with whichever family member stood the higher change of knowing.

He tried Yuzu.

"It's still summer vacation Nii-san, it started only two weeks ago." T-two weeks? This is completely before I left… Did that even happen "Ichigo?" Her voice held a fragment of worry.

"I'm fine. I'll be back later, I have some things I have to take care of." He smiled reassuringly as though to inevitably tell her that everything was okay as it was, though he wasn't so sure. She caught it, being the rather bright one she was, but ignored it. Her brother was already secretive.

"Just be careful, Nii-san. Don't forget to look both ways!"

Ichigo paused to put shoes on, then headed to the home of Inoue Orihime. He got halfway there before letting his mind wander again. He'd have to stop letting that happen, because when it did he got rather unwanted and complicated thoughts. And those confused him. Greatly. Why exactly was he going to Orihime's? To check if she was there, to verify with his own conscious that he wasn't the only one back 'home'? (That was of course assuming that this was his home and not some screwed up scenario.)

That was probably it, made the most sense, didn't it? He knocked softly once, before throwing some 'oomph' into it and pounding at her front door.

She answered within the next couple of seconds, and was just as surprised to see Ichigo there as he was to see her.

"Hey Orihime, I was wondering if you could come with me and Rukia to a few shops." He snuck mention of Rukia in there to see her reaction.

"Who's Rukia?" She asked in reply, inviting Ichigo into her home.

"Oh, just a friend. Don't worry, she probably can't make it anyway..." What the hell is going on?

Owari
Please tell me what you think. I want to know if I should continue or not.