Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does. If I did, all the characters relationships with one another would be much clearer. I do own a bottle of bleach though, but don't use it. Remember kids bleach eventually eats through your clothes, use bluing for your whitening needs.

"Who Says Death is the End?"

The silence was deafening. Sleep which should have come to him easily, yet seemed to have slip farther and farther away. It didn't help the situation with all the thoughts he was having. Had Ichigo had been a normal 18 year old boy he would have the usual thoughts on his mind. Was he going to go to college? How was he going to afford it, his father was a doctor and owned a clinic, but they weren't exactly rich. Had be been born an Ishida as Uryuu has he probably could of just bought himself into any college. That would of been nice he mused to himself in the blackness. He imagined what it would of been like to be normal, just being some nameless punk, some tramp of a girl hanging off of him. Only attracted to him for his "bad boy" attitude. It seemed pleasing to think of it but he knew not to let himself think about it for too long, he would end up getting depressed, something he didn't want to deal with.

Ichigo was far from normal. He was a shinigami, a being that in a way controlled death. He didn't kill as most would think when they heard what he was. He simply controlled the flow of spirits, be it those who were freshly departed, to those who lingered. He also had to eliminate bad spirits, the hollows as they were termed. Beings that fed on spirits and and spiritual energy. He sure as hell didn't ask for the job, but had to take control of his fate on a night three years ago. There was no other option to it, it was a life or death situation. The memory never faded, he could remember the events clearly, even after all this time.

It was a normal day, well as normal as they come for Ichigo. Being someone who could see ghosts, anything that wasn't to weird could be looked at as normal for him. He knocked a few punks around, not that they didn't deserve it. They disturbed a memorial left for a young girl who passed away in a car accident a week earlier. he couldn't tolerate how careless they were, not even stopping. The ghost of the poor girl standing next the the spilled flowers didn't help the situation. Ichigo couldn't stand seeing a girl cry be it a live or a dead one. As one of the fools got close to him, he stretched his arm out. Clotheslining the idiot, his friends went a little bit farther before they noticed the absence of their buddy. The sounds of someone gagging drew their attention.


"Yo, the hell you doing to lil' Yama!?" the one closest to Ichigo yelled.


Ichigo who just stood there, foot placed firmly on "Lil" Yama's chest, trademark scowl on his face. Just stood there.


"My god, will you look at his hair, he's a friggin carrot. You got a death wish punk?"

Ichigo didn't give him a chance to continue. Quickly booting the guy in the face.

"He just got Toshii, the hell this kid doing?"

Ichigo calmly composed himself, reaching down and picking up Yama.

"Ok boys and girls, were going to have a pop quiz," punching Yama in the face when he said pop, "This is going to be a short quiz, so please answer quickly."

He threw the man at his buddies.

"Question number one," he gestured to the small vase broken on the curb, then pointing to a guy with a goatee "What is that?"

The man looked at him for a second, looked at the broken object, then back to ichigo before answering.

"Flowers left for the kid that died here the other day?"

Ichigo smiled then positioned himself for what would come. He gave the man a roundhouse kick that would of left Chuck Norris impressed.

"Bingo! You my boy are correct," Ichigo said as the man literally skid to a stop next to his friends, "Time for question two, why is it knocked down"

Yama, who had finally gained enough air picked himself up, and answered that orange haired guy in front of him.

"We knocked it down when we were skateboarding. What does it matter? It's just for some dead kid, not like it matters."

Ichigo looked to his side, the poor girl was crying now. Tears flowing down her face, leaving trails of wetness. This pained Ichigo deeply. These goddamn idiots insulted this poor kid directly. Even though they couldn't see her, he knew that was no excuse. These assholes had to pay for what they have done.

"Wrong answer jerkoffs!" he roared, he slowly cracked his knuckles already thinking of what he planned for them, "Are y'all ready for your punishment?"

The men didn't answer. They just stared at the pissed off teenager as he slowly advanced upon them. Ichigo tilted his head to the side, forcing his neck to crack. The men started to shudder, they knew what was coming. Ichigo jumped on the first guy he got close to. A short time later, he effectively beat the hell out of the lot of them. The skater punks laid around him bruised and in the case of Toshi, bleeding a bit. Ichigo dusted himself off.

"Ok kids, this is what we learned today. We learned that it isn't right to be disrespectful to the dead, we also learned it isn't a good thing to be assholes about it."

The men looked up to the boy and nodded.

"You guys going to pull some shit like this again?"

They shook their heads in unison, all fearing the teenager's anger.

"You idiots get the hell out of here now, pull a stunt like this and you'll leave here with more than some bruises,"

They all scrambled to get away but not quick enough to prevent Ichigo from giving one a swift boot in the ass. Causing the man to stumble.

"Thanks oni-san, you don't know how much it means for me to have someone stand up for me," said the girl.

"Aw hell, it wasn't nothing," he patted the girls head, "I'll bring you some fresh flowers tomorrow, I got to head home or that old bastard of a father is going to lock me out"

This comment caused the girl to giggle a little bit. Ichigo threw her a little wave and started heading for home. While he made it before he was locked out, his father felt the need to give him a surpise kick as soon as he came through the door.

"Your late boy, where the hell have ya been? Yuzu just put dinner on the table," Isshin commented as he put Ichigo into a headlock, "I bet it was a girl. Was she good? I bet she was for you to be this late. Hell, your not even struggling like you normally would. This girl got an older sister with a rack?"

Ichigo couldn't take it anymore. he dealt with too much shit today. Summoning all the strength he could, he broke the hold his father had on him, reversing it, before throwing the old fool into the wall.

"Good my boy, good. Shows there's some fight left in ya yet. You ready for round 2? Get ready boyyyy..."

Ichigo didn't give him a chance to finish. Booting him in the face before he made his way into the kitchen. There his two sisters sat at the table, quietly munching on dinner. Yuzu smiled at him, Karin simply nodded to him.

"ichi-nii aren't you going to eat?"

Ichigo just shook his head.

"Save a bit for me Yuzu, I'll eat later"

"Oi, Ichigo looks like you got yourself a friend," Karin said, nodded to the area behind Ichigo.

Ichigo turned quickly, coming face to face with a business man.

"Hi," the ghost said simply.

All Ichigo could do was sigh to himself. He didn't need this crap right now. He needed sleep, he needed the softness of his mattress. He opened his door and just flopped down on his bed. He didn't care about his new found"friend", he didn't care about anything right now. He just wanted some rest. Rest that didn't come for him. He turned over noticing something black flickering through the air. As he focused on it he saw it was a butterfly, one black as night.

"The hell is that doing here?" he said out loud.

The butterfly was followed by a young women. She was dressed in black robes and carried a sword on her side. Ichigo just sat there gaping. The woman paid no attention to him.

"It's close," she said simply.

"What's close? The hell does that mean?" Ichigo kicked the girl in the butt, knocking her down.

"You can see me? You can touch me?" the girl said as she just looked at Ichigo.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Binding art Thirty-five!"

Ichigo felt his arms become heavy, falling to his sides. No matter what he tried, he couldn't move.

"Now that your settled down, I'm going to explain what I am and what I do."

All Ichigo could do was glare and listen to this girl. She explained she was something called a Shinigami, a death god of sorts. She went through the whole shindig, explaining she was after a hollow. It was then that Ichigo heard a roar. It wasn't like anything he heard before, it just sounded plain unnatural.

"Girl what was that?"

"What is what?" she just looked at him.

"Your telling me you can't hear that?"

It was then that Yuzu came through his door. She was covered in blood.

"Ichi-nii run."

"Yuzu what happened?!" Ichigo screamed, trying to force himself to move.

"Something attacked dad, we couldn't see it. His back just seemed to blow out"

Right then a roar let out, closer then ever.

"The hollow!" the raven haired girl said, "It has to be, but why couldn't I sense it?"

Ichigo was having none of this. He managed to get himself to his feet. He flexed his arms, trying to break lose whatever was holding his arms down.

"What are you doing, your going to hurt yourself trying to break the bindings!" the shinigami screamed at him.

"I don't give a shit, someone has to save my family. You standing there, doing nothing, sure as hell isn't helping the situation."

Ichigo strained harder, he could hear things starting to rip and give. After a few more moments he was finely free. He didn't waste a moment. He ran downstairs, his father's still form lying at the base of the stairs. There was a huge hole in the wall. He grabbed the first thing he could use as a weapon. Luckily Karin was a bit of a tomboy, even so far as playing baseball. There was equipment lying all over the place. Ichigo grabbed a baseball bat, the ash felt nice in his hands, it just felt right. If now wasn't such a bad time, he'd probably play a few games of ball with his sisters and old man. Tightening his grip on the handle he rushed outside. There stood the most ugly thing he has ever seen. It must of stood 15 feet tall. It looked like an ape, minus the fur and wore a mask
of what appeared to be made of bone. Ichigo noticed it was carrying something in it hand. What he saw horrified him. It was holding Karin.

"Let go of her you ugly bastard!"

It turned and looked at him, raising his head in the air and appeared to sniff.

"Hmm, it was you I smelled. It was you that was drawing me," the creature said.

Ichigo didn't think of what it said. He just ran and swung as hard as he could. The bat made contact with the thing's arm. Resulting in him getting swatted away like a fly.

"Bastard," he said though his gritted teeth.

As he prepared for a second strike he noticed a flash. A moment later blood spurted from the hollow's arm. It threw Karin towards Ichigo. He caught her with ease, then looked back at the beast. He saw the small women fighting it. She seemed to be struggling with it. It soon had the upper hand on the poor girl. This woman didn't know his name but she was fighting for him, for his family's sake. Right then Ichigo made a decision, if she was going to fight for him and possibly die, then he could return the favor. He prepared himself for the assault. After taking a deep breath he charged. He didn't know if he could do anything, but he couldn't just rest on his laurels. He did do one thing, he attracted the hollows attention. It charged him, jaws wide open. It planned to bite, probably in half if you took it's size into account. Ichigo braced for the inevitable pain, closing his eyes. He waited for the end, it never came. When Ichigo opened his eyes, he saw the hollow right in front of him. It was being held back by the shinigami. She took the attack, protecting him. The hollow biting her chest.

"Anyone ever tell you that your an idiot?" the girl said, coughing up a little bit of blood as she spoke.

With one deft motion she swung her sword, cutting a bit of the hollows mask off. It seemed to inflict enough pain to distract it. It let go of the girl and stumbled away, screaming in pain. Ichigo caught the girl as she slumped forward. She looked up to him, seeming to stare into his soul with those cobalt orbs she called eyes.


"I have something you need to know," she said, breathing a bit erratically.

"What?" was all Ichigo could say.

"I can't defeat the hollow as I am now. I'm too wounded to fight effectively."

"What?!"

"There is a way, it's a small chance but if it works, your family will be saved."

"Tell me how Shinigami."

"Rukia Kuchiki," she said simply.

"What?"

"My name's Rukia."

"Ichigo Kurosaki. Now tell me what I need to do."

She looked at him, then raised her sword.

"Take this and pierce your heart. When you do this, I'll loan you a portion of my power. With it you should be able to defeat the hollow."

Ichigo thought for a second before grabbing the blade. With one quick motion he impaled himself. With that he felt a power come forth from within.

Ichigo felt his chest where he had pierced his heart. As he moved his hand, his fingers glided across the numerable scars that he acquired over the past three years. As he thought about it he came to the realization, that if he was given a chance to do something different with his life, he would of still made the same choices. He met and grew close with many people. While his friends lives were changed with his choice. None of them were truly harmed and none would of held Ichigo at fault even if they had been.

Soon Ichigo could feel the signs of sleep coming to him. His eyelids felt weighted, his body felt like it was made of sand. He knew he needed to get some sleep. He had a life changing decision to make when he got up. He needed to have a clear mind to go through this. Ichigo let out a sigh, grabbed a little more of his blanket before rolling over in his bed. Soon sleep came to the young shinigame, with it came dreams of the past. Tomorrow was a big day for him.

A/N: Heh, my first step into the world of fanfics in a long time. First one to actually leave the safety of my hard drive. Please review, I need some opinions and ideas on how to continue with this. Anything would be much appreciated.