Disclaimer: Bleach aint mine, nor are its characters or collectables or anything else. So Kubo, please don't sue, I'm pretty broke.

Author's note: Alright, where to begin? First, I would like to thank you for choosing to read this fine piece of literature made by yours truly. Well, I hope you like it at least, I've never really written any sort of fan fiction before, much less about Bleach. This is somewhat of an experiment in a few ways: My first fanfic, first time writing from a girl's perspective (I'm a guy, so ladies, if you see something uncharacteristic lemme know), first time probably writing sex, and a few other things.

I would ask that you PLEASE review, or send me a message if you'd like. Even if I don't respond, I love reading reader input, criticism, or anything of the sort. So don't hold back! I already know I'm going to get shot down because the story is told through the eyes of an OC, and this story is not going to be big on fanboys and fangirls since I'm not going to be making popular romance angst, but I'm hoping it'll work out.

You'll either love it or hate it.

Well, I have this whole story planned out like no one's business, and looking back on this first chapter, boy are you guys in for a treat should you choose to stick with it. The only thing I will tell you is the day starts at the morning of chapter 195.

Now, without further ado.

Chapter 1: Awakening

What was the first thought that came into my head? Was there one?

Was that just it?

A million questions, racing over and over again, clogging my mind. What were those questions even trying to ask? More questions, not helpful in the least. There was nothing. No answers, no reasons, just plain and simple nothing. A void filled only by whiteness, the same blank light that we experience each morning, which whispers in our ears and dances on our eyes telling us that the time has finally come to wake from our slumber. But there was no waking up; there was no dream. Instead, pieces of information made its way through that emptiness, my senses straining to work once more.

At first only the feeling of a breeze. Sand hitting my face, maybe it was ash? The smell of something burning – no, smoldering – made me think it was the latter. I could taste it in my mouth. At that moment I could swear I would remember that taste for as long as I lived. As soon as the moment passed, I could no longer recall it, just a residue of feeling, of sweat and blood, grime and grit. The ground vibrated against my body as if trying to escape, its cries assaulted my ears. It was dangerous. It was telling me to get up. To run. Yes, I was lying down. I shouldn't be. Maybe it was just my instinct in the end that inevitably took over, that ordered me to move without a hint of mercy.

Then I opened my eyes.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to see a world burn? Where even the sky, looking high overhead, cannot stand to watch, and in its despair breaks into a thousand pieces? I never thought I would. But here it was, the sky splitting into cracks and star falling like shards of broken glass, deafened by the sounds of explosions and fire. The ground ablaze even when there was nothing left to burn, and tall embers and smoke reached out in anger and to spread its hate. Its malice.

"SO THIS IS YOUR CHOICE?" came a voice. I was actually shocked at first; surprised that something else was even alive, much less capable of talking. Was I? All I did was smile, an all too confused smile that mirrored my reply.

"Of course."

It was all a blur.

Light struck my right side, the heat and warmth slowly eating at the cold sweat that covered me, and the sheets I was grasping with all my strength. Breathe deep. I looked over to the source of that light, looking out my window to see the familiar scenery of the sun shining above Kakura town. Yes, this was my room. It was all a dream. Nothing but a dream. No, it was something more, the same dream for a while now. And I'm still as clueless as ever as to the cause or how to fix it. Those pills given to me by that weird shopkeeper Urahara were losing is effect. But the worst part of all of it was not the nightmares, nor my need to take pills: it was that I believed that dream would come to pass.

"Aiko! Wake up already! I hear Orihime finally coming back today!" Ugh. The annoying cry came from none other than my stupid little brother, Jun, the same as always. Forget the fact that both Orihime and Tatsuki come to pick me every morning, all he cares about is Orihime. I guess I can understand him, after all she's got the most shapely body I've ever seen on a woman, though I think mine rates pretty high. As if that wasn't enough she's also sort of an airhead. A wet dream for any guy I suppose.

But he was right and I was late. Dammit. I threw off the sheets, ran into the shower for a quick 3 minutes, which incidentally I spent cursing that my stay in the shower would have to be cut so short. More importantly I mulled over how Tatsuki told me that Orihime was coming back after a 5 day absence, but she wouldn't tell me what happened. I should've visited her; I don't know why I didn't. That was stupid of me. At least I was going to see her today, Jun wasn't the only person happy in anticipation. I finished up, wishing I had more time, and threw on my uniform.

Only thing left was to pay some attention to my looks, can't go to school looking like some ogre with bed head. Especially this long navy hair, which is always hard for me to manage, but since most guys prefer long hair I haven't sacrificed it yet. Not like I have any luck with boys, but that's another story altogether. Just put in two braid strands by either ear, then just a part on the right. Apply some quick make up… perfect!

Almost on que the doorbell rang. Oh well, there goes breakfast. I opened the door with a standard greeting. Well, almost.

"Hey, good morn-" I stopped dead in my tracks. Orihime was covered in bandages, what with her left arm in a cast and sling, a bandage on her left cheek, and her forehead wrapped in gauss. She looked like she had been through a train wreck. I couldn't believe it. She didn't act like it though, opting to be jovial as usual.

"Would you believe me if I said I fell down a flight of stairs?" She laughed, preempting my question.

"That's what happens when you can't see your feet past your boobs there." I laughed, deciding it was best to accept whatever excuse she wanted to come up. I couldn't help but notice Tatsuki just looking down. Whatever happened, it was something big. Well, if she wanted to talk about it, I was here for her. I'm not going to start interrogating a hospitalized friend, maybe later.

"Well, let's get out of here before Jun sees you and drools over you anyway."

We walked and talked, but it was all superficial, filled with "ahhhs" and "ummms" that made such conversation entirely too uncomfortable, and I had a feeling we all knew it. Gone was the joy any of us might have had walking like this, replaced with an awkward melancholy and fake happiness that left me sapped and tired. Ever since the summer things have been different. I hardly saw any of Orihime at all, but at least Tatsuki was around. Now deep secrets seemed to divide all of us. I guess I'm to blame too since I never told them about my dreams. But we were already at the school, there was no time.

"Wait." I said, as they both stopped and listened. "We're still friends right?"

"Aiko, what are you talking about?" said Tatsuki, Orihime nodding in agreement.

"You both know what I'm talking about." And they did, their acknowledgment followed by distant looks with no response. That silence, filled with loneliness and heartbreak, I almost cried as my heart sank. "Well, well… I'm not giving up." I struggled to say, breaking that silence. The both looked at me again, but all I wanted was for them to say something, anything.

Tatsuki came to my rescue. "I don't know what's happened, but at somewhere along the lines we thought it was okay to keep secrets from each other." She looked over at Orihimie and then me, "All of us." Of course she would know I was hiding something from them as well, we were friends. There was a slight pause that was interrupted by the bell. So I offered a solution.

"Well, then after school we'll fix this, and we'll spill our guts and tell each other all these silly secrets and we'll be the friends we should have been all along." They both looked at me with desperate smiles, as though I had lifted some heavy burden they were carrying for perhaps the most childish reasons. I smiled too.

Before class had even started, Orihime had a run in with Ichigo, and she ran off. I wasn't sure why, but I'm sure it was related to her injury. That stupid Ichigo, I don't know what anyone sees in the guy. Not a hint of common sense in his body, probably the kind of guy who thinks he can solve everything by punching it.

"What happened, Kuroskai?" He looked at me with empty eyes and tried his best to answer, but nothing came out. Like he desperately wanted to say something but his mouth didn't work.

"Sorry, Aiko," was all that came out. I thought it was a bit ridiculous to hold it in, but that's the kind of guy he is, and I could understand. Well, if he wasn't going to say anything, Orihime would.

But before I could leave to follow and console her, a stampede of new faces showed up. I was a little surprised to see them have school uniforms on when I had never seen them before, they seemed to know Ichigo pretty well though. A bald guy, some girl whose biggest feature were her breasts (bigger than Orihime's, which I personally thought was impossible), and some others, all of whom I managed to introduce myself to one by one. The only one who really struck me was a small kid with white hair. Hitsugaya he called himself. He was actually kind of cute, although a little too short.

And then Rukia flew in from the window. I had started to wonder about her. As if her return couldn't be any flashier, she promptly kicked Kurosaki in the face. I cheered.

"Go Rukia! Kick his-" For the second time today I cut myself off mid-sentence. I just couldn't stop my jaw from dropping as I watched her single-handedly rip Ichigo out of his body. There's no other way for me to describe it. But when I looked around, no one else seemed to notice. What was going on? I didn't have time to make sense of it. Before I knew it Rukia jumped right back out the window with the Kurosaki robed in black. I rushed to the window, only to see them running on rooftops.

"Did no one else see that?" I shouted, scanning the room for some visible response only to be disappointed. The rest of class seemed to ignore me, but that new group that had shown up all stared at me in shock. How could they be shocked that I asked such a simple question, but be entirely calm about the fact of Kurosaki being split into two?

"You…" the thought came from Renji, which trailed off as if waiting for me to snap him awake or respond, but I had no reason or time to explain how I wasn't blind. Even Ikkaku was just standing there holding Ichigo's lifeless body. Screw this.

In the end I decided to run out of class, despite a cry of, "Wait!" which echoed from some of the class, and instead opted to hastily borrow some kid's bike. I had to figure out what was happening. It felt like I was racing them, Rukia and Ichigo, as they jumped across the rooftops. Perhaps fly would be a better word, as I almost lost them a few times. It wasn't human how fast they moved.

When they did stop, I couldn't believe my eyes. Ichigo was wielding a massive sword against some white monster, which Rukia named as a "Hollow." My nerves collapsed. This had to be a dream, another dream. My palms were sweaty, nothing made sense. My mind froze. I just fell down as my legs refused to work. But I could still hear. I could hear Rukia yelling at him about being a Death God, a Shinigami. About protecting his friends. About becoming a Hollow.

I couldn't breathe, drowning in such a surreal scene. No, this wasn't just shock. The pills weren't working anymore. My mind raced. It was coming again, that wave. That feeling of sick and death, washing over me with no remorse until it permeated every part of my being. I wanted to vomit, as if to rid myself of a disease that plagued me, and eventually I did, coughing and hacking but instead expelling my sanity and doing nothing to ease that horrible noise. That singular and omnipresent voice, the voice from my dreams, laughing, or maybe screaming, over and over again in a symphony of nightmares and chaos. Impossibly loud too, as covering my ears did nothing, nor did smashing my head against the building wall. Neither did the tears.

Help. Help me. I couldn't speak.
Help me. I'm sorry I followed. I'm sorry for anything and everything.
Everything was hot, burning to the touch.
A blur, static.
Nothing purer in the world than this, this unending and unadulterated pain.
Please. Please. Please.
This wasn't happening. Forgive me.
Forgive me forgive me
forgive me forgive me forgive
me
please
ohgodplease someone anyone at
all please save me.

Save me.

Someone save me.

"SOON."

And just like that the pain subsided, vanishing just as quickly as it came, and while I was relieved, in retrospect it was the calm which hinted that some irreversible change had occurred. Yet there were no Hollows, no Shinigami, no supernatural battle or any signs of one. It was as if nothing happened at all; as if everything was normal. But it wasn't normal, not the new kids at school, not Ichigo and Rukia. What was anymore? With nothing else left to do I stumbled over to the bike, my body aching to get a hold of the seat and get my feet on the pedals, sweat cooling in the breeze. That's when I noticed Hitsugaya. Had he followed me all the way out here?

"We need to talk." He said plainly.

When I think back to it, this was when it all began.

And there's chapter one. I know, I know: not a whole lot of Bleach character interaction. That's to come though, the first chapter is always a bit ambitions, since I have to not only lay the foundation for the story, but characterize the OC "Aiko" and fit her it into the Bleach Universe. You can probably guess what character she's going to latch on to a bit, but do keep reading, nothing is what it seems.

I have recently been informed of something called "beta readers," (clearly I did not lurk enough), so if anyone knows any good beta readers or would like to offer any services, I would humbly accept your assitance.

Till next time!