Standard One-Time-Only Disclaimer: What you don't recognize, I own. What you do, I don't.

A/N: An attempt to make a long, thought-out OC!Insert featuring a believable female OC with an interesting and unique background, a well-developed romance with an understated but incredibly hunky Shinigami, and (hopefully) good grammar and punctuation. Feedback is appreciated, but not my main concern. I noticed the Bleach fandom is pitifully lacking good OC stories, so I'm writing this to scratch an itch, so to speak. Now: to the story.

Miracle
Chapter One
Little Things

The shrine was quiet.

Not silent—old buildings were never silent; they echoed; they groaned; they sighed; they waited.

Ayameko had spent the past fifteen years waking to the buzzing atmosphere of the Wakahisa Shrine. It was an accommodated feeling, but she doubted she could sleep in any other conditions.

Lush pink lips parted, hushed breath released as long black lashes separated around a single caramel orb. Arching her back and stretching slender limbs as far apart as comfortable, she turned her head into the tiny ball of warmth lying next to her, smiling sleepily, "Good morning, Tomi-kun."

The light grey mouse blinked up at her, high-pitched voice squeaking in return, "Good morning, Aya-chi!"

She felt him hop onto her shoulder and snuggle beneath her curtain of chestnut hair as she vacated the warmth of her futon, bare feet padding softly across the tatami floor towards the external bathroom. Quickly brushing her teeth, Aya carefully folded her night yukata and slid on her summer uniform, expertly buttoning the white blouse and patting the pleated skirt free of wrinkles. She was not overtly fond with the relatively revealing ensemble, the length of the skirt was particular vexing on windy days, but paired with thigh-highs, only a small sliver of skin was revealed—acceptable for a priestess like herself.

With long locks parted into low pigtails, fastened with two red bows, Aya grabbed her backpack by the shoji doors leading out the side of the shrine. She called out a chipper "Ittekimasu!" as she rounded the front, waving demurely as her grandfather's three shrine aids called out their own farewells, enthusiastically swinging their brooms and rags to send her off. A cool morning breeze caressed flushed cheeks as she rushed down the 777 stairs leading up to her family's legacy. Karakura High was at least a half hour away by walking, but she had a little…extra help.

She was excited to see Orihime-chan and Tatsuki-chan, two of her greatest and closest friends. Aya had met Orihime-chan when she was very small—she and her older brother would visit the shrine every New Year to give their thanks and prayers. On one visit, Aya had been discretely practicing on the shrine-goers when a girl around her age came barreling into her, immediately spewing apology after apology. Aya had simply blinked, dumbstruck, before giggling uproariously. They had grinned at each other like fools before Sora came rushing over to see what mess his little sister had gotten into. It was the start of their inseparable bond and when Tatsuki came into the picture, their duo became a trio and had only grown stronger over the years.

Despite her oath of righteousness and purity—something everyone knew a priestess had to take—people were still weary of her. Perhaps it was because of her appearance; people were doubly afraid to approach Orihime and she when they were together, as if their looks were something mystical that set them apart from the rest. Perhaps it was her aura; there was an inherent part of her psyche that refused to let anybody get too close. The only being on the planet that knew every part that made her "Aya" was Tomi and only because as her familiar, their souls were connected. This was the main reason she had spent most of her childhood alone, isolated behind closed shoji doors and unhealthily devoted to her priestess duties.

Orihime-chan and Tatsuki-chan were different, though. She could trust them. Maybe even enough to tell them—

"Wakahisa Ayameko."

She stilled, toe of her mary-jane just barely tapping the next step down, tilting her neck towards the source of the voice. The cheerful smile on her face promptly slid off, bright eyes cold as they connected with the luminescent yellow orbs of a pure black cat. A familiar? No…its signature is different. Tomi peeked out from the collar of her shirt, chittering indeterminately against her throat.

"You're friends with Inoue Orihime, nah?"

A split second, the world stilled, a heat, an electricity took to the air—as if to say 'hold your breath.' Tone low, a gruff quality unsuited for the loveliness of her face, she warned, "Be very careful, neko-kun, with what follows that question."

The cat stalked forward, sitting poised with a dignity foreign to ferals and strays. "Kuchiki Rukia."

Aya jolted, eyes widening. He knows…he knows I remember her. Does that mean Orihime remembers as well?

The cat raised its head, sending her a mocking yet shrewd look, "You have questions, Wakahisa Priestess, that I, Yoruichi, can answer."

Pursing her lips, Aya fully turned towards the deceptively innocent-looking feline. She could feel no ill-intent from him, only subterfuge: he had many secrets and Aya would determine if any of them would endanger her best friend. "Tell me."

Tomi dug further into her neck, whispering in worry, "Can we trust him, Aya-chi?"

Aya hummed, following the cat as he led her towards the far side of town, "For now."

.

.

"What did you say?!"

Aya grit her teeth in fury, mind racing to keep track of all the facts: Orihime-chan and Sado-san and Ishida-san and Kurosaki-san and Rukia-chan and Sereitei and—and—

"We leave to rescue Kuchiki Rukia at dawn."

Dawn? Dawn! Orihime-chan…is this why you've been so strange? Were you going through this all by yourself? Her lip wobbled in sorrow, what kind of friend have I been? I should have told you...what I am. About the Wakahisa…about everything.

"I would have come to you sooner, but I was unaware that any true Wakahisa Priestesses were left. It was only after Inoue-san made a passing comment about finding Aya-chan's 'peculiar birth mark'"—Aya's fingers unconsciously darted to her right eye, hidden beneath a veil of thick bangs—"playing hide and seek at the Wakahisa Shrine. That seal though…I've never known a Wakahisa Priestess to have to resort to one of those." Yoruichi's shrewd look returned as he nonchalantly licked a paw, "I wonder why that is…"

Aya closed her eye in dismissal, humming, "I wonder…"

Tomi placed a tiny paw on her cheek to get her attention, "Don't frown, Aya-chi."

A warm bubbly feeling rose in her stomach, grateful for her loyal familiar's constant companionship. "Arrigato, Tomi-kun."

If Orihime-chan found this cause worth risking her life over, Aya would follow her until the end. She would tell her everything; every secret carefully kept hidden for her own safety and the safety of everyone around her. There was a reason the Wakahisa Clan were the last Seinaru Seishō wielders; there was a reason only her ailing grandfather and Ayameko herself were the last of the Wakahisa; there was a reason behind her seal and her secrecy.

"Yoruichi-san," she rose to her feet, breathing deeply in resolution, "I'll see you tomorrow."

She could feel his gaze on her as she left the shop, but she did not turn around. She did not look back once the entire way back to the shrine.

Protecting her precious people was the most important thing to her, but there was a growing anxiety that questioned whether the consequences of letting the Shinigami know of her existence would prove greater than she—and the world—could handle.

Aya slipped her fingers beneath her thick bangs, tracing the tips of her index and middle finger along the minutely raised skin above her perpetually closed eye. It had been a necessary restriction all her life; she had never known the whole world, only half (ironic considering most of the population were ignorant to the spiritual realm, while she, well, wasn't).

"Aya-chi…" The sound of her familiar broke her out of her reverie.

"What is it, Tomi-kun?"

"Don't you think…it's time to ask?" Aya's eyes widened and she swiveled to look at Tomi. The only person who knew how to break the seal without completely destroying it was the one who writ it into her flesh, the one who held his dying daughter in his arms as she birthed a child too strong for any single body, the one who lost his wife to the mass of Hollows attracted to the baby's power fifteen years ago.

Amassing her resolve with a deep breath, she ascended the steps to the Honden, the setting sun warm on her back. She glanced at it briefly, only ten hours left before dawn, I have to hurry.

She hesitated no more as she slid open the shoji. The room revealed was dark, the only light cast from where she now stood to let it in, and no adornments decorated the walls, bland white paneling only broken by a single black shoji door in the far wall. A single occupied futon lay in the middle of the small space. From beneath the covers, a head of striking silver hair turned towards her, divulging a face wizened by age and aged by sickness.

"Ojii-sama."

A rasping breath, then:

"So you've finally come, ha?"

Weakly, he sat up, the fluid in his lungs only made more protuberant with the action. Aya stepped forward in worry, arms raised to aid him when he choked out a harsh, "No!"

She lowered them in resignation, biting her lip softly, casting her gaze to the side. The sound of him raising up, hacking coughs piercing the air every so often, tore at her heart. Her only living relative was dying; the very power that made the Wakahisa so strong was poisoning him from the inside out. One wrong move, a single moment of error and the well of Holy Essence inside could betray its user. Seinaru Seishō: Even her mother—no. That was a bad end she wouldn't hash out today. Right now, she had to confront the glaring restriction she'd seen in the mirror every day.

"Ayameko," her grandfather addressed and she looked into his eyes, "come."

Slowly, she followed him towards the black door, pausing as he moved to open it. "Ayameko."

"Y-yes, Ojiisama?" She stuttered in surprise.

"Fifteen years ago, I placed that seal on you the moment you came into this world. You know why I did, don't you?"

Her throat worked as she stared wide-eyed at his back, "I…know why."

"Hn," his gaze was severe as he met her eyes over his shoulder, "then I won't ask why you wish to break it. However, I will say this: what you learn behind this door, what I show you—you must promise that if it ever threatens to overwhelm you, if you ever begin to see reality from a position too high to fully comprehend, you will never touch the Well again."

Aya could barely speak, too confused to form full sentences, "W-what? I don't under—"

"Promise me!"

She felt Tomi burrow into the hollow of her shoulder as she shrunk away from the intensity of his order. Her own tone was naught more than a whisper, "I promise."

Her grandfather turned back towards the door, "I already lost a wife and daughter to this despicable Purity, I refuse to lose my only granddaughter as well."

If his voice was shaking and distraught as he slid open the door, she wouldn't mention it; just as he wouldn't mention the tears dripping over the arch of her high cheekbones. Ojii-sama…thank you…

They disappeared into the world behind the black door.

In ten hours, they would reappear. To them, however, it would feel like years.

To be continued.

A/N: Well, hope you enjoyed…maybe? First chapters are rarely interesting, especially when one has to introduce an OC with a completely noncanon background and concept. Even then, more will be explained in later chapters. I will probably only vaguely follow the canon plotline, if just using it as a basic guide. Anyway! If you have time, maybe tell me what you think about Ayameko or the Wakahisa?

M.M.