Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters and settings that Tite Kubo created.

Project 00: Full Moon

Chapter 1: A Girl Called Zero

It was Monday, and Kurosaki Ichigo knew he should already have gotten up and begun getting ready for school, but for some reason the idea really wasn't appealing to him. In addition to that, he was having a really odd dream, and he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to wake up, just in case it was going to turn into a nice dream all of a sudden, and then he might miss it. The teenager was sure something was leaning over him and licking his face, and it was the strangest thing he'd felt in a long time, especially since whatever-it-was seemed to be furry.

As his alarm began beeping incessantly, Ichigo decided to wake up, and, once he had, he decided not to open his eyes for a few more moments. Then he suddenly realised that there was definitely still someone leaning over him, but the licking had stopped, and that there was a cold breeze coming from his right.

Cracking open brown eyes, Ichigo blinked twice to focus, and found himself staring at wine . . . which really didn't make sense, so he narrowed his eyes, and tried to work out what he was looking at. In a flash of abrupt awareness, the teenager figured out that the 'wine' was actually someone's eyes. And, since that didn't make sense either, he was about to close his own eyes again and pretend nothing strange was going on, when a few things straightened out in his head.

The first was that his window was wide open.

The second was that someone was staring at him with wine coloured eyes.

And the third was that that someone was a girl, who, on first glance, appeared to be naked.

Screaming in shock and blushing bright crimson, the teenager rolled off his bed, landing on the floor with a great crash, 'What the hell?'

'Ichi-nii!' the voice of one of his younger sisters, Yuzu, floated up from downstairs where the girl was no doubt cooking something delicious, 'Are you alright? Do you want me to come up?'

'NO!' Ichigo's shout was perhaps a little louder than was necessary, but he couldn't help it, 'Don't worry! I'm okay! I just fell out of bed, that's all!'

'Okay then,' Yuzu didn't sound like she completely believed him, but she was willing to accept what he'd said anyway.

'Wonder what he was dreaming about,' his other sister, Karin, spoke as cynically as usual and her older brother could imagine her smirk.

'Why you-,' Ichigo gave up on that thought almost immediately when he remembered that there was still someone else in his room that should be taking up his attention. After all, he needed a couple of answers, and he was definitely not willing to let his family know that a girl, wearing only a thin grey shift, was in his room without a rational explanation.

Turning around, the orange haired teenager glared at the girl, who seemed very thin and lithe in figure, although there was a certain area of her chest that appeared to be years behind in development. Ichigo almost died when he realised what he'd just thought and tried to focus on her face instead.

The teenager had wine red eyes, something Ichigo had already noticed, and burgundy coloured hair which was lengthy, reaching her waist. Her skin was white, something which seemed unnatural, and, at present, she was still sitting on his bed.

'Who are you?' Ichigo was very confused, and he wondered if he was still dreaming.

'Zero,' her voice was quite husky, as if she didn't speak often or yelled a lot, which, although they were practically opposites, were both feasible, and the cadence was rather low.

'Zero?' it seemed like an odd name, considering everything. The logical part of the orange haired teenager's mind finally kicked in, and he turned around, walking over to his draws and pulling out a pair of black jeans and a white short sleeved shirt. They would undoubtedly be too large, considering that this girl, Zero, was probably ever so slightly taller than Inoue Orihime, but they'd have to do.

It's good that, Ichigo tried very hard to be clinical over the matter, or else he'd just start blushing again, Considering that she looks as old as me, her...physical development probably due to puberty, in the front, upper chest area, is,he frowned slightly, Practically non-existent, or else this shirt wouldn't work well at all.

'Here,' he held out the items of clothing, and was surprised by the blank look she gave him, 'Huh? You know . . . clothes?' he felt really awkward, waving the items of clothing and trying to ignore a few obvious facts. And she was wearing a dress of sorts, so she should have got the idea.

'Look,' he tapped his hands on his legs, and tossed over the pants, 'Those go here,' then he pulled at his shirt and threw the one he was holding across the room too, 'And that goes here,' turning again, he added, 'Okay, so you get dressed and I'm going to go get something to eat,'

Zero nodded and picked up the shirt, so Ichigo decided it was safe enough to go and get breakfast. He'd already figured out that going to school was impossible if he couldn't find out where the teenager had come from and return her there.

Perhaps a mental asylum, the sceptical thought entered his head, but he dismissed it quickly, Even if that's the case, I can't just dump her out onto the street.

'You shouldn't eat breakfast in you room,' Yuzu was unhappy with her older brother, and she pointed accusingly at him with a wooden spoon, 'And why aren't you ready for school?'

'I,' Ichigo felt bad for lying, but he'd already worked out that he was going to have to, 'Don't feel so good so I thought I'd skip school today and just do some homework,'

'Alright then,' handing over the tray of food, the girl nodded, 'You rest up and I'll tell the others not to bother you,'

'Thanks Yuzu,' smiling in appreciation, the orange haired teenager turned and walked back up the stairs, 'I'll remember this,'

Opening his door, he peered inside nervously, just in case Zero still hadn't worked out the concept of clothes, but he was pleasantly surprised to see her dressed and sitting cross legged on the floor, reading through what appeared to be his homework.

'Uh,' shutting the door behind him and setting the tray down on his desk, Ichigo thought he should point one thing, 'You've got that upside down,'

Looking up, the teenager blinked and then adjusted the book. Strangely enough, even though the characters had been flipped due to the angle she'd been reading from, it looked as though she'd gotten some meaning from them.

'Here,' passing down a small bowl of soup, Ichigo added, 'Eat up,' then, sitting back in his chair, the orange haired teenager continued, 'I'll call Inoue later and ask her what to do with you. I mean, she's a girl, so she might have some clothes that'll fit you better,'

'Okay,' it sounded like she was just going to go along with whatever he said without arguing.

'Hey, who are you?' he knew he'd already asked, but still . . .

'Zero,' same answer, same tone, 'Kurosaki Ichigo,'

'Huh? You know who I am?' the whole thing was getting harder to understand by the second, 'Anyway,' shaking his head, he continued his questioning, 'Why are you here and where did you come from?'

'I came because you smelt good, and I came from far away,' red, wine coloured eyes were level as the teenagers stared at each other.

'Smell?' Ichigo's mind was beginning to get left behind in the past as the world kept spinning and moving without him, and he wasn't sure whether or not to be insulted, 'And what do you mean faraway?'

Zero shrugged and took a sip of the soup, 'I don't really remember,'

The disbelieving and slightly withering look on Ichigo's face probably would've scared most people, but the red headed girl just kept swallowing the warm liquid in the cup and staring back at him, gaze sometimes flicking down to the homework book.

Ichigo was about to say something else, along the lines of 'what are you planning to do now if you have no idea where you're from', but then he noticed something on her neck, 'Hey, what's that?'

'What?' she looked up and sat back, putting the cup down in front of her on the ground.

'There,' pointing at a position on the right side of her neck, behind a few shorter strands of red hair, Ichigo repeated himself, 'What is that?'

'Oh,' raising a hand and pulling aside the neck of the shirt, Zero placed a finger exactly in the centre of the mark there, 'This is a tattoo,'

It sounded as though she considered him an unintelligent little kid and felt that she needed to speak in a condescending way to help him understand.

'A tattoo?' Ichigo wasn't exactly inclined to believe that this girl was not a juvenile delinquent, due to her apparently dyed crimson hair and now a tattoo.

'Is it such a surprise,' she seemed genuinely surprised herself, and slightly curious.

'Well, yeah, you just . . . don't see many kids our age with tattoos like that,' Ichigo was still staring at the mark, even as she released the few strands of hair and they drifted back down over it, 'Or many people at all,'

It was a thick black zero set at the centre of a square which resembled a rose, albeit a gothic, stencil like one. There were also two tiny characters at the bottom right of the mark, 01.

'It's rude to stare,' it was hard to believe that this girl was the one who'd stared blankly at clothes just a short while ago, 'Ichigo,'

'Did you dye your hair?' sitting back and blinking to remove the image of the black ink that was permanently a part of the pale skin, Ichigo asked another question.

'Did you?' she sounded insulted, 'Of course you didn't, and neither did I,'

'Okay, okay,' hoping she was going to stay quiet, the orange haired teenager sighed deeply, 'What am I supposed to do with you?'

'Nothing,' going back to reading, as if the content of Ichigo's homework was absolutely fascinating, Zero fell silent.

This has been the strangest day I've experienced in a long time,Ichigo leant his head on his desk and tried to figure everything out, And it's not even midday yet.

'You let it escape?' a furious yell echoed out from the inside of a large room, 'You idiot!' there was a sound as if someone had just been hurt, very much so on purpose, and then the shouter continued, 'Do you realise what could happen because of this?' another muffled thud, 'I wasn't finished with that and now it's gone!'

'I'm sorry! Please forgive me,' a pained voice spoke out in a quavering way, 'The seal was disabled and then it did that . . . and then that happened to me,'

'Was it really disabled?' now sounding suspicious, but not of the injured, the previously furious person continued calmly, 'Well, all I can say is that I want it back. That was going to be a very important weapon when it was completed. After all, that process can only ever be completed once in all of history, the entirety of time, and the result can be used to do almost anything,' a manic laugh echoed through the underground compound, 'It could be used to destroy the World of the Living, Hueco Mundo, the Soul Society . . . even the dimension of the Spirit King,' a pause, 'So I want it back, because there's still so many somethings that I want to achieve with it,'

'If someone finds out-,'

'If they do, they do,' the first speaker cut the second off, 'The only thing I care about is having that thing back here as soon as possible,' another laugh, 'Because time is of the essence, as you should know,'

Author's Note:

Please enjoy this story, I really hope you will . . .

And it's not going to be long, so it might seem a bit rushed, but that's just the way it's going to be . . .