A/N: This is one of my first stories and I hope you all will like it. I've worked on this one for a while and four chapters are done and I'll try to update each week (until the four finished chapters are posted, then we'll see when the next update is). In the beginning I planed to finish the whole story before posting it here on fanfiction, but I'm very slow when it comes to writing this on the computer, so by posting it now I hope I will get motivated to write faster. And I'm unsure of which rating I should have on this story, T for now, but it might climb up to become M due to possible violence and gore, please tell me if you think it needs to be changed.

Disclamer: I don't own Bleach, as everyone knows it belongs to Tite Kubo. But Hjouru is my own character and it will appear several others, but I'll mention them in the beginning of each chapter (some has a bigger impact on the story than others).

I accept any form of critic, praise, flame ect. Just tell me in a review what you think of the story, if it's good or bad. Oh! And if you find any spelling errors please tell me (I would appreciate if you told me where it is also). And if there is any questions, I'll see if I can answer them without spoiling the rest. At last, please read and review and enjoy the story.

Hunting Season

- This has Happen -

This take place after the Arrancar war or The Winter war as it also was called… Aizen lost his precious Espada in the living world and was unfortunately able to escape before the captains could capture him and have him executed. He lost this battle because one of his right hands, betrayed him… Ichimaru Gin… While Tousen Kaname died when he protected Aizen from Shinsou's long ranged shots.

Ichimaru was striped from his position as a captain, but was allowed to stay in the Gotei 13 as a seated officer in squad 10. This however made Matsumoto Rangiku happy, but her captain Hitsugaya Toushirou, didn't like it that much, but nothing less accepted the situation since it was an order from the Sou-taichou himself.

Four months has pasted since the war and nearly every thing was like it was before the whole incident…The only difference is that Ichigo now know that his father is a shinigami. Like normal, hollows still appeared and were sent to Soul Society or to Hell. Rukia was placed as a guardian over Karakura Town and together with Ichigo they watched over the Town and its inhabitants. She lives with the Kurosaki family for the moment – as Isshin's third daughter, as he puts it -, where life is like normal… or as normal as it can be when three members in the family are shinigamis and two of them fights hollow to keep the citizens out of danger. Every thing has been calm so far… but things can rapidly change… for the worse or for the better…

- Chapter I: Saviour -

Heavy breathing and the sound of running feet's echoed through an abounded street of Karakura. No one was there, even when it still only was 6pm and if they were, they wouldn't bother to look at the boy, who only seemed to be in a hurry. But that's not the case… the boy is running, running for his life, away from the monster hunting him, which no one but him could see…

Suddenly the monster gives up a blood curling howl and the boy thought that his blood would freeze by the mere sound, it sent chills down his spine and he panicked. He looked behind himself and did absolutely not like what he saw… the monster was only few meters behind him and kept coming closer…

Everything happen so fast, one second he was running, the other he was knocked over and hit the wall very hard, it felt like his skull cracked by the force and he could feel a hot, sticky liquid trickle down his neck. He was unable to get anywhere since the monster was standing above him, showing its sharp claws and teeth, smirking like a madman in triumph, its prey at its feet and will soon cure the acing hunger in the chest and at the same time making the creature itself stronger.

Before the boy passed out due to the hard hit to his head, the exhaustion and the horror he was put through, he saw a blur of black and orange with something very long and sharp. The setting sun's last light reflected itself in the sharp edge, making the object look even more dangerous than it already was. By an unknown reason he was afraid of the object the figure held in its possession, then he couldn't keep himself conscious anymore and feel into the darkness…

XXX XXX XXX

Images rolled on like a film in his mind, he didn't even know if they were real or just fantasy. He couldn't see any surroundings, just a blurry face of a young girl forming inaudible words with her lips. He managed to catch the last phrase she said; "I will always follow you…"

XXX XXX XXX

'Where… am I… am I dead..? No, I can't be, if I was, my body wouldn't ache like it does…' his body twitched a bit due to the pain he felt, thenheard some faint whispers, "Is he awake?", he heard it was a female voice, "You should let him sleep Karin." He tried to open his eyes, but they only flickered a little and remained closed, "I know, I just thought he was wakening." Then he lost consciousness again and everything went dark once more…

XXX XXX XXX

Yuzu looked down on the feverish boy; he was very pale and was sweating. When her brother first brought him here, he was covered in cuts on the whole body, some deeper than others and now he mostly resembled a mummy, with all those white bandages on the body instead. She sighed and went after another of these small white towels and a bowl of cold water. When she returned he was twitching a lot, like he tried to escape something, sweat and tears trickled down his face and she could hear him mumble, or more of ranting, he kept repeating the same thing over and over again... 'Please, don't… please, stop…'

"Dad!" she called and almost instantly her father appeared in the door way. It took him only a glance at the boy to understand what the worried call was about, and gave the boy a small shot, it worked almost instantly and the boy was knocked deeper into unconsciousness, into a dream less slumber.

When the boy finally woke up, it was dark outside and he moaned in pain, the back of his head hurt like hell and so did his back. It was first then he noticed the blonde girl in the room, she was standing over a bowl with some liquid inside and held something white in one of her hands. 'That isn't that girl…' He made an attempt to rise and succeeded to get up on his elbows, then a similar white thing slide down his forehead and stopped in front of his eyes.

"What… the…" he said weakly with a raspy voice, his throat was hoarse, like he had screamed for hours. Just then the girl turned around and saw him, "Oh? You're finally awake, how do you feel?" she said with a voice filed with concern. She was wearing a small white uniform, which was slightly familiar but he couldn't remember from where.

"I guess… I've been better… but I feel fine… if my head and back… doesn't count." He replied with a weak voice and a small smile on his lips, "I don't wanna be rude… but what's your… name miss?"

"Kurosaki Yuzu, what's yours?" she said while looking at the boy, taking in his features. He had black middle short hair and gentle red eyes; for the moment he didn't wear anything on his upper body since it still were covered in the bandages, but she remembered that he looked well trained.

"Zenro Hjouru… and thanks for all the help." He smiled at her and she could tell just by looking at him, that he meant it. "By the way… what happen with the monster?" he had a thoughtful expression on his face, looking around the room, taking in its features. He was in a small room, with barely any furniture at all; it was like the room was made to have injured persons in it.

"What monster..? Onii-chan brought you here, after he found you unconscious on the street, three days ago." She could hear that his throat was dry and offered him a glass of water, which he gladly accepted and drank it quickly. It took a few minutes before what she said sunk into his mind, probably because of the hard hit he had recieved.

"What? But what was it that I saw then… Wait, three days ago? Was I out that long?" Hjouru was shocked and tried to remember what happened before he was hunted by the thing, but failed miserably… he couldn't remember anything! He only remembered waking up in an alley with no clothes on his body and shortly after he "borrowed" some, the creature appeared from no where and started to chase him.

XXX XXX XXX

"Let's see… I've been here for…" he started to count on his fingers "Six and a half day by now," he sighed and shoke his head "and still suffers from this stupid amnesia, how typical. I mean, this is stupid, I can't remember a single thing! I just keep have these strange dreams about that girl! And she doesn't say anything else but 'I'll follow you everywhere', what the heck does she mean by that? And I can't see her anywhere!"

The boy was located on the roof of the Clinic, speaking to him self due to pure boredom. "What to do, what to do… Isshin-san said he didn't need any help for the moment and the others are at school… Man this is so boring!" he half yelled, flailing his arms and legs rapidly, it was then he spotted a small lonely boy on the street, around the age of 10, he looked really lost.

Everyone just walked past the boy like they couldn't see him or like he didn't exist at all, he looked at everyone who past him with pleading eyes and was on the verge of crying. Hjouru couldn't stand it and jumped down from the roof and walked towards the boy.

The boy thought that Hjouru would walk past him and was very shocked when he stopped next to him! "Hi, is there any problem kid?" Hjouru asked this very politely and it was first now he saw the small chain on the kid's chest, 'Why's that thing looking so familiar?', the kid just stared at him; pale on the face, his mouth hanging open. "Ehmm… Earth to the Kid," Hjouru waved his hand in front of the boy's face, "Hello, you look like you've seen a ghost." He said with a small laugh, patting the tiny boy's head in a comforting manner.

"Y-you can s-s-see me!" the tiny boy stammered, by the looks of it he couldn't believe it himself.

"Umm… shouldn't I be able to, I mean you're standing less than one meter away from me, right?" needless to say that he is very confused, 'Man, this kid must be very lonely if he reacts like this when someone talks to him.'

"I-I don't know, y-you're the first one to talk to m-me after I d-died in a car accident, one week ago…" the kid's eyes shone like his life had gotten a new meaning, when Hjouru first lay his eyes on the boy; they were looking dead.

Hjouru flinched, "I beg you pardon? I must've heard wrong… it sounded like you said that you were dead, like in no longer living." He looked at the boy, begging silently that he had heard wrong and would receive a 'you've been fooled!' answer, but non came, only a small nod. 'Oh, shit! I'm talking to a ghost!' and he fell to the ground unconscious.

XXX XXX XXX

"Pheeww…" Hjouru sat down on an empty bench, they had searched for hours and the last spot to search in was Yumizawa Children's Park. The ghost boy needed help to find his sister; who also died in the accident, to be able to pass on to the other side and Hjouru hadn't the hart to turn him down, so here they were, looking for a girl that maybe not even was in the living world at all.

"Kid, don't wanna ruin your hope, but she might already have passed on." He said tiredly.

"No… she's here, I can feel her presence." The boy said while looking around, smiling. "Are you sure? You know, my feet kills me right now." Hjouru moved so that he would sit more comfortable on the bench and let out a delightful sigh.

"Yeah I'm sure, we often came here to play when we still were alive…" the boy went silent, staring at a point behind Hjouru. It was like he had been paralyzed, but not by fear, it was something else… "Nee-chan…" he whispered "Nee-chan!" this time he shouted and when Hjouru turned around he saw a small girl on the swing, she couldn't be older than 6 years.

She looked up when the small boy shouted and was quite shocked; but she started to run towards them when she recognised the boy as her brother. She hugged him tightly and cried softly at his chest, "Onii-chan…" she said weakly "There, there, calm down, I'm here now." And he whipped away some tears from her cheeks.

Suddenly a nostalgic feeling crept over Hjouru, making him uneasy and made him start to look around. Then he saw it… a black hole of some sort, around 300 feet (around 100 meters) from them… and something tried to make its way out of it!

When the way to familiar skull mask appeared he panicked, he grabbed the siblings' arms and started to run away from the hole. He knew that these monsters were fast and that they needed every second they could get, to even have the slightest chance of escaping this thing's sharp fangs.

XXX XXX XXX

The seal of approval started to make its hollow warning sound and Ichigo was slightly frightened, but only because by mere surprise. 'Damn! Why do a hollow have to show up now?' he looked at the watch, 'One hour till the school day ends… well it can't be helped.' He grabbed his bag and ran out of the classroom, yelling a lame apologise to the teacher about family business. Rukia decided that he could take care of it alone and wrote down the remaining notes for him, so that he could read it later when she turned in her weakly report to her Captain in Soul Society.

Ichigo soon changed into his shinigami form, after hiding his body and performed several shunpos, to get to the hollow's location faster.

XXX XXX XXX

'We have to get away!' Hjouru thought desperately while running for his life, he dared to look behind himself, but regretted it gravely. 'Shit! It's closing in.'

Suddenly the girl trips over her own feet and falls "Nee-chan!" her brother calls, "Oh no!" Hjouru shouts and made an attempt to get the girl back on her feet's, but froze when a clawed hand grabbed him around the throat; making him unable to breath.

The monster brought him closer to its own masked face, it started to laugh in an insane way, sending chills down the spine and made the hair stand straight out on the boy in its possession. "Ahhahah, I found you!" it was clearly that this monster was just as happy as a child on Christmas Eve.

Hjouru grabbed the monster's arm in a weak attempt to make breathing easier, he tried to bend the bony talons of his throat, but they wouldn't budge. He struggled with all his might, kicking with his feet's violently, but it only resulted in the grip tightening, tears found their way down his cheeks and saliva trickled slowly from his mouth. He could hear the kids scream in fear, but it sounded so far away and the sound of his blood in the head was overwhelming. The monster opened its mouth widely, ready to bite of his head. 'This is it…' he thought sadly and closed his eyes…

A loud shrike of pain and the pain of the hard impact with the ground, made him open his teary eyes again. The monster's right arm was severed from its body, the same arm that had held him around his throat. Then he saw a figure in pitch black clothes, with hair in an intense orange colour… "Ichigo…" he whispered shocked, after removing the limp limb from his throat "Is that you...?"

Said teen looked the kid in the eyes, "You can see me..?" he asked stunned. Hjouru didn't know what to say, so he gave him a small uncertain nod. "Shinigami…" the creature hisses in a threatening and venomous filled tone, while holding what's left of its arm, whining slightly in pain. The orange haired teen's respond was a glare just as threatening as the monster's words. "Leave him alone you damn hollow!" he says with Zangetsu raised, ready for battle.

The hollow's tail moved from side to side just like an angry cat's, but it didn't attack as Ichigo had expected it to do… "Give me the boy and I'll walk away peacefully, sparing yours and the two children's lives…" the hollow nodded in the siblings' direction, but kept its eyes on Ichigo just in case, "Deal?"

Hjouru was terrified; he couldn't see Ichigo's face just the smirking hollow's; which wasn't that relieving. His eyes shone with fear and he looked from Ichigo, to the hollow and back again, he shivered, the only thing he could do was to wait for his dome; life or death…

"You know what hollow…" Hjouru's blood froze, it sounded like he would agree "Screw you! I'll never sell out my friends!" The boy was very stunned 'Say what..?'

"Come on Zenro-san. Just call me my given name, no need to be so formal, we're friends remember?" The girl looked towards his direction and made a small pirouette. "Then you should just call me Hjouru as well, like you said we're friends no need to be so formal." Her face is still blurry, but he could see that she had brown hair and white clothes… and a big friendly smile.

"What did you just sa…" further than that, it didn't get in the sentence, before it was purified by a cut from Zangetsu. The attack had take less than one second, so the hollow didn't have time to react. It left the world with a pained roar and then it was gone from the surface of earth.

"Ichigo… what was that… that monster?" Hjouru asked while getting up on his trembling legs, when he stood somewhat steady, Ichigo laid his hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's called a hollow… it's when a souls chain of fate has eat itself up completely, leaving nothing but a hole in the chest left…" Hjouru looked at the two siblings, "You mean that chain on the chest, right?" Pointing at the two children, who came up to them when the monster was gone.

"Yeah… the hole in their chest resembles their lost hart, so in order to easy that pain of loneliness they feel, they hunt down and eat others souls…" he stopped talking when he saw Hjouru's teary face cry even more, "What is it now? It's over, no reason to cry, right?" Hjouru dried his tears as good as he could, "No, it's just… I thought I would die, it was so close to eat me… then you came and saved me…" a thought just hit him "It was you that saved me before wasn't it? You know at the street?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised that you remember that, you hit your head pretty hard." He then brought out Zangetsu; but kept the clothing on and walked up towards the kids. "Do you guys feel ready for a konsou? Because we don't want one of those monsters after you again, now do we?"

"No mister we don't… it won't hurt, right?" the girl asks shyly, "No it won't, all you have to do is to stand still while I do this, ok?"

"Yes mister," the boy turned his attention at Hjouru "Thank you so much for the help in finding my sister, I don't think I would have found her if you didn't helped me, so goodbye and thanks again." He smiled a soft smile and Hjouru couldn't stop himself from smiling too, "Yeah, happy journey kids, take care."

And then the konsou began, a sky blue light surrounded them, then two black butterflies flew to the sky and the blue light died down like it never had happen…

I will follow you everywhere, because we're friends…

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"He's asleep now, so what did you want to talk about?" the raven haired girl asked, looking at a teenage boy with fiery orange hair. "Rukia, could we take it outside?" Ichigo asked pointing at the ceiling, "Sure." Was the short reply he recieved.

"So… what was it of such importance, that made us unable to speak inside?" she said it with a playful voice and spoke in this way intentionally, just to annoy the strawberry… which she succeeded in.

"Ha ha, very funny… I wanted to talk about our little guest, I'm worried about him…" Ichigo said with a deep frown on his face, looking up at the star filled sky. Rukia looked at him urging him on to continue. "I wonder why the hollows are targeting him, I mean…" he looked at her "I can't even feel his reiatsu and yet hollows gather around him like ants to sugar…" Rukia couldn't stop herself from laughing slightly at Ichigo's choice of words, his lips twitched a little like he was about to start smiling, but kept himself from doing so.

"So far it has been two hollows that literally said that they wanted him as a snack… but why him! One of them said he would even let me and two other souls walk away just like that, if he only got Hjouru."

This made Rukia's eyes widen "But hollows don't ask just about one soul! They want the strongest one they can find and it would let yougo just like that? Even I find it hard to sense the kid's reiatsu, and I'm good at it! Besides, why ask for only him when he only are on the average level for normal souls. It's even surprising that he could see you at all!" it was a short pause "Wait… you said that they literally told you…when did this happen, tell me about it."

"First time was when I found him and brought him to our house one week ago…" Ichigo begins his long explanation and got the feeling of going through the same event once more.

Flash back…

"Leave him alone!" the orange haired teen said in a threatening voice.

"Do you know him?" the hollow asked in a low hissing voice. "What?" the teen was shocked by the question and lost his stance temporary.

"You heard me, and by the looks of it, especially the one on your face, you don't… therefore, why don't you just give him to me and I will leave peacefully… what do you say?" the hollow asked with a smirk.

"Go to hell, will you?" was the short mocking answer, and this time was it the hollow's turn to be shocked and surprised. "WHAT!" it screamed before it was vaporized by a mighty swing from Zangetsu…

End Flash back…

"And surprisingly enough, it was right there the hollow ended up." Ichigo finished with a shrug. Rukia just rolled her eyes and nudged him to continue.

"And today short before the school ended…"

Flash back…

Hjouru lays on his side, panting heavily from the strangle grip.

"Give me the boy and I will spare you and the two kids over there." The hollow nods towards the two siblings. "Deal?

End Flash back…

"So… do you have any idea why they're after him Rukia?" Ichigo says while looking at the big shining moon.

"No, I don't… the only reason they would have, is if he has a lot of reiatsu and is a master at hiding it." She said, not serious about that part at all. "But you should keep an eye on him when you can." Rukia says with a voice filled with concern.

"Yeah, that part of keeping an eye on him won't be that difficult… dad said that he will stay here until we hear from the police… which can take some time, since he isn't reported missing and has been here for one week already." Ichigo said with a slight worry in his voice… "He hasn't mentioned his parents once yet during these days… it seems like he still suffers from the amnesia, but I thought he would have recover from it by now. He seems to start remember some things, 'cuz sometimes he tense up and space out." His frown deepened again. 'When I think about it, the only thing you clearly remember about yourself is your name… who exactly are you… Hjouru? ... Why does it feel like I've missed something very important? And why do I always have a strange feeling around you, that isn't about protection?'

Might as well say this now that it's not going to be any parings, except for minor ones. I was thinking Ichigo x Rukia, Hjouru x Raya (one of my ooc's) and maybe, just maybe Yuzu x another of my ooc's.

Hope you liked it and next chapter will be called "The Eight Day". Until then please read and review.