Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :)

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter One: Strangers In The Dark.

Kurosaki Ichigo lay sleeping in his bed when a Hollow reiatsu and a beeping awoke him. Ichigo slowly blinked and yawed widely before he sat up, stretched and looked over to his desk where his Shinigami Badge was blinking incessantly at him. Using his reiatsu, he tracked the Hollow and found it was in down town Karakura but its reiatsu was as low as the average hollow. Grabbing the badge, Ichigo pressed it to his chest to pull his soul out and then pressed the badge to the yellow plushi Kon's head to transfer the Mod Soul Pill to his empty body. Kon slept through this and didn't even stir when Ichigo slid his window open and jumped out into the cool night.

As he made his way to the location of the Hollow, Ichigo flared his reiatsu slightly to tell his friends; Chado, Inoue and Ishida, as well as Urahara and his father that he was going after the Hollow. This was something that they had come up with just lately to stop everyone emerging to fight a low-level Hollow. Ichigo stopped on the top of a house to wait for the others to acknowledge and sure enough felt Chado's reiatsu soon after, confirming that he would leave the Hollow to him. Ishida, Inoue Urahara, his father and another Shinigami flared their reiatsu within a thirty seconds and Ichigo set off again. This method was a good one to ensure that only one person went to deal with a Hollow at a time, and if say Chado was about to go and fight a Hollow but Ishida wanted too, all Ishida would have to do was flare his reiatsu twice in a row and Chado would wait for Ishida to take over, before leaving. Of course, that didn't happen often. Unfortunately for those with high spirit energy, they always woke up at night when a Hollow appeared and this idea (Ishda's, of course) gave everyone confirmation of who was fighting, so they could go back to sleep. Ichigo remembered what Ishida had also said when he first mentioned the idea…

*Flashback*

"- With this idea, it gives the rest of a chance to sleep, or if it's during the day it stops everyone wasting their time" Ishida finished, pushing his glasses up his nose a little more. Ichigo nodded in agreement, as did Inoue, but Urahara had a question

"Ishida-san. What about if the Hollow if too strong for the fighter or they get injured and need help?" The store manager asked and Ishida smiled as if he was waiting for someone to ask

"Well, if the Hollow was too strong, or they got injured then they would flare their reiatsu a specific way." He said smugly, "How about we flare our reiatsu three times if the Hollow is too strong, but if we are injured then we flare our reiatsu for five seconds…if the fighter is unconscious then his or her reiatsu would drop and that would also alert us to injury" Ishida suggested and everyone agreed. Even if everyone was asleep, a drop or long flare of reiatsu would wake everyone up because they would realise subconsciously that it's not right when fighting for that to happen.

*End Flashback*

Ichigo laughed slightly when he realised that another Shinigami…probably one that was sent to guard to town had also given confirmation for him to fight. The idea was obviously catching on. Ichigo had to admit that the infuriating Quincy had good ideas.

Ichigo finally reached his destination and landed on the grey pavement in the middle of he deserted high street, it was three in the morning after all. Ichigo's eyes were immediately drawn to the out-of-place spectre in front of him and he drew Zangetsu. The caterpillar-like Hollow with its customary bright white Hollow mask roared, shaking the area around itself by the sheer pitch and volume of its cry and Ichigo put his left hand against his head, feeling like he was becoming deaf. When the prolonged roar finally ended Ichigo shook his head experimentally to clear the buzzing and dizziness before jumping up high and landing in front of the Hollow.

"You're so weak I can beat you in my sleep" he bragged to the Hollow, which probably didn't understand, but it made Ichigo feel better anyway. He shunpo'd forwards in a flash and raised his sword, cutting the Hollows mask and following the cut all down the long body to the tail. Ichigo landed lightly and turned back to watch as the Hollow faded into the dark night and its reiatsu vanished along with it, leaving the town peaceful and Hollow-free.

Ichigo looked around the street, normally there was a reason Hollows came to the human world, a spirit or being of high spiritual power, but he couldn't sense anyone nearby, which left the spirit option. Ichigo carefully glanced around, but the street was barren from what he could see, but just because he couldn't see them…didn't mean they were there.

"You can come out now…the monsters gone" he ventured without much hope, but to his surprise a figure appeared from the alleyway between two shops.

The girl was older than Ichigo with waist-length black hair and beautiful grey eyes that looked quizzically at Ichigo as she stood just in the light of the street, but still far enough away to run if necessary. Ichigo noticed her apparent shyness and lightened his tone to appear less threatening.

"Hey are you okay?" Ichigo asked in the most comforting tone he could

"N-no n-n-not really" she stuttered and blushed,

"What's the matter?" Ichigo questioned, although he probably knew the answer

"I'm….d-d-dead" she mumbled and Ichigo walked a step closer to her, smiling reassuringly.

"Would you like me to send you to heaven and away from the monsters?" he enquired. The girl nodded slightly held out her hand to him.

"C-can we go down here?....I-I-I like it in the…the…the dark" she requested and Ichigo nodded, walking forward and taking her hand as gently as he could. She turned and looked towards the near-black ally and then glanced back at Ichigo who again smiled encouragingly. Ichigo felt slightly odd about the whole situation, but reminded himself that she was just a scared soul, although she seemed more scared than some of the younger spirits he'd met in his time. Then again, death affected people in different ways.

The black-haired girl led Ichigo down the quiet ally and he followed cautiously, and he followed, but it suddenly dawned on him why he felt uneasy. He hadn't felt any reiatsu from this girl, like he would with any normal spirit and wondered if she was hiding it subconsciously. The girl stopped quickly and Ichigo held up his sword

"Nanami, Ami?" the girl said timidly and a soft male voice spoke out of the darkness beyond them

"Kaori?"

"H-hai" she replied with only a slight stutter. Ichigo noticed that she had relaxed a bit now and found out why seconds later.

A female and male had moved stealthily out of the shadows and marched towards them. Both had black hair and grey eyes like the other, they must be siblings or close friends. The male, Nanami, had moved behind Ichigo and looked at him closely, as though inspecting him

"Is he powerful?" Nanami asked and Kaori nodded

"Very, he gives off high amounts of reiatsu and he fought and killed that Hollow with minimal effort" she answered smartly, surprising Ichigo with her sudden change in personality.

"Hey what's going on here?" Ichigo near enough yelled, tired of being inspected like a puppy about to be brought by an owner.

"Our master wanted someone powerful that could protect her and help her build her army" the other girl that must be called Ami sneered.

"Master? Army?" Ichigo questioned, trying to find out enough information in case there was a war, which sounded like a very realistic idea at that moment by what these three were saying.

"Yes, Hisa-sama" Kaori answered him, "she wants to build an army of powerful shinigami, maybe a few Visored and some powerful humans"

"And you think I'll willingly join an army and help recruit?" Ichigo said in a warning tone, the situation had been turned upside-down from the simple soul burial he was hoping to complete before getting back to sleep.

"We never said anything about willingly" Ami mocked and Ichigo brought his sword up to her neck, and turned to the Kaori.

"Right, here's what is going to happen, were going to Soul Society and your going to explain yourselves, and if you refuse to cooperate I'll kill this one" he said scathingly. Of course Ichigo didn't wan to have to hurt the soul, even if the soul burial and slashing her with his sword had the same result.

"Our orders must be completed, loosing a life doesn't matter as long as our mission is a success" Nanami said carelessly whilst still scrutinising him. And looking around, Ichigo noticed that none of them cared that he was holding Ami ransom, even the girl herself.

Ichigo held in his rage. War had helped him greatly with thinking things through and be less irrational and angry when in situations.

"You saw my power right?" Ichigo asked after a moment and the others nodded "Then you know you have no chance of taking me anywhere." Ami glared and looked at him, slowly pulling his sword away from her throat spoke in a vicious tone

"Who said we were taking you anywhere?"

Now Ichigo was confused

"So let me get this straight" Ichigo said "Your life or death orders are to get me to be some servant to a person I never met, help her build an army, protect her and your gonna do this without taking me anywhere?" he summarised

"Basically yeah" Kaori said

"And how in hell are you gonna manage that?" Ichigo demanded

"With this" Nanami said, holding up a small canister with silvery liquid swirling around inside, he to the cap off which revealed a sharp pointed needle. Without anymore said he plunged the needle into Ichigo's neck, which he hadn't at all expected, in fact he'd expected a fight of some description.

The world tilted as the silvery liquid was introduced to his system.

"This will slowly infuse with your blood" Nanami whispered gently to him "You will belong to Hisa-sama within 72 hours…that's three days you have to say goodbye to your friends"

"Hisa-sama is generous, she will treat you nicely" Kaori murmured

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?" Ichigo yelled, Nanami and Kaori looked at him compassionately

"Hey we all felt the same too at first" Ami sniggered.

Ichigo felt lightheaded, whatever was working its way through his system didn't seem too good. He needed Inoue, and fast.

"You will come and find us once it's completely in your system" Nanami said and the three turned on their heels and swept away, leaving Ichigo alone.

"Well this sucks" Ichigo groaned and used his Shunpo to get out of the ally and onto the building above.

Ichigo breathed out and sat down, if whatever that thing was was like a poison he shouldn't move too much right? But the dizziness and light headedness was already fading and he was starting to feel better now.

"What the heck was that, and those weird guys?" he wondered.

Ichigo laid back, feeling better now and then realised he needed to go and sleep, he would ask Inoue at school the next day, but he couldn't help feeling uneasy about what they had said, three days? An army, and who was this Hisa person? He should tell Soul Society about this.

Mind made up Ichigo decided to go home and catch some more sleep before school the next day, he left his reiatsu at his normal level so any of the others that were awake and worried about him would know that he was fine.

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A/N: First chapter of many, Do you like it? Should I continue or not? I need you readers to tell me.

Thanks for reading. Mimz