Setting: The story takes place after the Winter War by about eight months or so.

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in this story as they are the property of Bleach, Tite Kubo, ect. BUT! But, I do own two: Kenshin Takeda and Tetsu Kiba.

Hopefully you enjoy and depending on how this does I'll likely continue posting the chapters :D

Chapter 1: A Chance Beginning


"What?" Soifon stared at the messenger in complete shock and disbelief. "The hell do you mean he's missing?"

"I'm sorry commander, but in the midst of the attack we lost track of Captain Takeda. We attempted his soul pager but he didn't respond, commander."

Kenshin…her pupil who she felt protective over was missing? Something had to have happened as a captain doesn't just go missing by their own accord. If he had been fine after the attack he would have returned back to the Soul Society or called for medical support should he need it.

"Track his pager and find him damnit!"

"As you command, Force Commander." The messenger vanished, leaving a perplexed and worried Soi Fon. Just where could he be?

/\/\/\/\

Face first in a puddle in a back alley in the human world.

It was raining and the unconscious captain was already soaked. People walked by the alley without so much a glance for none would have even seen the spirit being. His zanpakutö was unsheathed and held tightly in the grip of his right hand while his uniform looked tattered; which wasn't a surprise.

The captain's current state had been brought on by a Hollow attack that had been quietly coordinated by a group of adjuchas. It was extremely rare of adjuchas to bother coming to the human world since they had to feast on Hollows in order to maintain themselves, but it wasn't unheard of for adjuchas to come and fatten up Hollows or to find earth-bound souls to make them into Hollows.

Initially things had gone smoothly for the captain and the small team he had with him, but once the adjuchas revealed themselves that was when things went south quickly. In an effort to protect his squad members he had lured the adjuchas away but in doing so left himself with overwhelming numbers. For a master swordsman who boasted being the second fastest shinigami in the Soul Society, it was hardly a problem for him to handle the overwhelming numbers; but a surprise attack from behind knocked him out and sent him spiraling down to the city below.

In the process, his soul pager had slipped from the folds between his kosode and shitagi.

/\/\/\/\

"Maaan….of all days for me to stay late for practice I chose today when I knew it looked like it was going to rain." Tatsuki let out a heavy sigh of annoyance as she walked in the rain. She was glad she was close to home now, but why hadn't she brought an umbrella?

That's right, because the forecast called for clear skies all week, and as such she wasn't expecting it to rain today. She had seen the clouds gather all day in class, but she hadn't bothered to think anything of it and figured they would pass. It was the reason she chose to stay late at the dojo to practice, but her dedication to her training earned her a walk with soaked clothes and a dismal mood. As she turned the corner toward the neighborhood district, she had caught a faint glimmer of something in the alleyway out of the corner of her eye.

She wasn't sure why, but curiosity got the better of her and with a reluctant sigh she turned and looked into the alley. To her astonishment and shock, there was a man laying face first on the ground holding a nodaichi in his right hand. It was rather strange that he was wearing a uniform that could have belonged to the Edo Era and that the coat he was wearing had the Kanji for the number five on it, but those thoughts left her mind as she noticed the blood stains on his arms and back.

Shifting her book bag around behind her she ran over and kneeled next to the guy and gently pried the blade from his hand before rolling him over onto his back. To her surprise he started breathing which she noticed via the shallow rising and falling of his chest. Oddly enough the front of him had only minor cuts compared to his backside. What the hell was with this guy? You don't just find some guy in ancient garbs with a bladed weapon in a back alley; right?

An occasional person walked by and she wondered why no one was turning to help. Wait…

Tatsuki felt something was a bit familiar by the black hakamas and kosode this man was wearing. Hadn't she seen others in similar garbs before? Mentally shaking herself back to the present, Tatsuki took the blade and sheathed it in the man's scabbard before moving to get him up to his feet with his arm draped over her shoulders. "Damn good thing I take karate or else you'd be in trouble buddy…"

For now she'd take him back to her place. He didn't seem hurt enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, but if his injuries proved otherwise she could take him over the Ichigo's. It was a good thing his dad had a clinic right at the Kurosaki house and that the two lived so close to one another.

Her walk home was even slower by helping support the unconscious man; and, it was also uncomfortable. It wasn't made uncomfortable in supporting him, but by the strange looks people were giving her. The hell was there problem? First no one notices this guy and now they suddenly do? Although…the way they were looking at her wasn't out of concern for the guy or confusion by his garbs; in fact, the stares were on her. Why?

Tatsuki chose to ignore them and just focus on getting this man home in the pouring rain.

/\/\/\/\

It was fortunate that her parents were not home as it likely would have been strange of her to bring a drenched, unconscious man in. She had carried him to the bathroom before moving to get him out of his upper garments while pat-drying his hakamas, his body, and hair. As she did so she noticed a scar trailing from his left shoulder down toward his right hip and a rather detailed tattoo on his right shoulder blade, but chose to ignore it. This day was already proving strange enough.

After getting him dried off, Tatsuki did what she could to bandage his wounds before taking him to her room and laying him down. She hung his coat, his kosode, and his undershirt to dry while propping his sword next to her bed. After drying herself off and changing into a loose t-shirt and some sweats she went to mop up any of the water that had dripped off of them from the front door to the bathroom.

When she returned she sat at her desk and silently stared at the man. Who the hell was this guy? She was having trouble shaking the notion about his outfit and that she had seen it before on others, but whom?

Oh well, there was homework to do before mom got home and made dinner so no point in wondering about such a thing for now. She could ask him about who he was when he woke up.

A few hours had passed and she had been so engrossed in the mass amount of homework they had gotten today that she never even realized her parents had come home. A knock came at her door and when the door began to open Tatsuki turned her attention to the unconscious man on her bed and began to freak out. It was bad enough she had a stranger in her home but one that was unconscious, a man, and in her room? Her parents were going to kill her.

She had barely shot to her feet when her mother poked her head into the room and smiled. "Dinner's ready Tatsuki-chan." Her mom blinked in surprise at her daughter's look of shock. "Sweety, are you alright?"

Didn't her mom see the man on her bed? What the hell was going on? "Eh-heh," Tatsuki rubbed the back of her neck nervously, "yeah, I'm fine mom. You just spooked me. I didn't even hear you come home."

Her mom smiled once more and chuckled lightly, "I'm sorry dear. Come wash up for dinner."

Her mom left the room and shut the door gently behind her, leaving Tatsuki to look at the man once more curiously. Just who was he and why didn't her mom see him? Or…did she and did she just choose to not say anything?

Dinner was awkward as Tatsuki was expecting her mom to ask about the man but none of her mom's questions even hinted at the man. They were all about her day, classes, practice at the dojo, and how her homework was coming along. This was just surreal…

Tatsuki had chosen to take some leftovers from dinner with her to her room incase the man woke up which she was hoping as….she sort of left herself with no where to sleep by having put him on her bed.

After finishing her homework she decided to go check on the man's upper garments and was glad to find they had dried. She folded them as best she could before returning to her room to set them on her dresser when she noticed the man was sitting up with a vacant expression on his face. Gently she shut the door behind and moved to the end of her bed, setting the garments down.

"Hey, are you feeling alright?" The man glanced up at her absently past his matte, long hair. His eyes were an interesting shade of a bluish gray which gave them a mix between deep and empty. "Ermm…what's your name?"

He stared at this stranger in complete silence for a few minutes while taking in the room around him. It was a tidy room with a few decorations on the wall. Where was he at…in fact…what was his name? "I…don't know…" Tatsuki's eyes widen a bit in shock. Did this guy have amnesia? "Where am I?"

"In my family's home. I found you face-down in a back alley on my way home." She watched as he clenched at his head with a hand while groaning in pain. The man moved to lie back down and started mumbling. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I don't know…"

"Do you remember the last thing that happened before you passed out?"

"No…I can't remember anything at the moment…"

It was definitely amnesia. He seemed irritated in his replies which made her believe it wasn't some sort of trick on his part. She snapped a finger and held up the man's white coat and unfolded it, showing him the back of it. "Does this jog your memory any?"

The man pushed up onto an elbow and brushed his bangs aside while staring at the coat and the number on it. Five…five for what? Was it a place? A rank? Why the hell would someone go walking around with a giant 'five' on the back of a coat? Coat? Wasn't that called a haori? He groaned again and returned to lying down. "No…"

For now it would probably be best to just let him rest and see if he could recall anything tomorrow.

/\/\/\/\

The next day in school was hard for Tatsuki. She found herself thinking about the strange man in her room that her parents didn't seem to even notice; or at least they weren't saying anything about it. She had found him this morning sitting on the floor of her room tracing a finger over that long scar on his torso, but when she asked if he remembered anything about it he sighed softly and shook his head. Maybe he would recall something by the time she got home this afternoon.

She ended up going over to Orihime's after school to spend time with her and work on some homework together which helped clear her mind since it was hard to think about anything with Orihime's usual antics. It was fortunate she had a friend like Orihime who was so lively.

Choosing to leave after a few hours and to get home before the sunset, Tatsuki was surprised to find the man sitting in her room. Wasn't he hungry or something? Had he been there all day? "Hey…I'm home."

He glanced over and watched her come in, shutting the door behind her. She offered him a smile but he really couldn't feel a reason to return it, then again he had a feeling that he normally wasn't a man to smile. She frowned and set her bag down on her desk before sitting at the end of her bed. "You…have any luck?"

He actually had. He faintly remembered some things but he still couldn't recall who he was, why he was in an alley unconscious, or what it was he did; but, "Yeah…I do recall a bit…"

She smiled again and moved to cross her legs and face the man. "Such as?"

"That nodaichi…I recall its name being Tetsu Kiba…" Tatsuki was a bit surprised. Why would someone name a blade first off, and why would they name it iron wolf? "And…after realizing your mother couldn't see me…I remembered I'm a shinigami…"

Now that was even stranger and left her jaw agape. A death god? At first the notion seemed so incredibly far-fetched that she thought he was either crazy or messing with her, but as she thought about it that notion started to make sense. No one had bothered to help her when she found him and people gave her strange looks when she was carrying him back home. There was one way to prove it…

He watched as the girl leapt from her bed and ran to her desk, searching through a roll-out three-tier drawer from underneath the desk and pulled out a camera. Tatsuki turned it on and waited for the screen to start feeding the image from the lens before turning to point it at the man. Sure enough…there was nothing there. She nearly dropped the camera when she realized this and understood fully that this guy must really be some sort of spirit.

Was she going crazy from too much practice at the dojo or too much homework? That couldn't be as she had gotten some of his blood on her shirt from that day when she carried him and had lied to her mom, stating it was from a friend who had gotten a bad bloody nose and she had helped take them to the nurse's office at school. She couldn't be imaging it then if his blood did appear visible when on her, but then why couldn't anyone else see this guy?

"Eh…hello?" She visible shook once she heard his voice calling to her and snapped herself from her thoughts. He had a brow arched in question at her. "So what is your name anyways?"

"Oh…I'm sorry. I'm Arisawa, Arisawa Tatsuki." She bowed slightly and offered a smile once again.

He scratched at his hair and shrugged absentminded. "Tatsuki huh…I swear I've heard your name before…"

"Really?" She asked while putting the camera away and moving to sit on the bed again.

"Maybe…I don't know…so the city, what city are we in?"

"This is Karakura Town. It's a sub-district of Tokyo."

"Hmm…that also sounds familiar…in fact I know I've been in this city many times but don't live here…but I can't recall why I've been here…"

"Well don't strain yourself. You sound like you're making great progress as it is. Still can't recall your name though?" He shook his head slowly and sighed.

She felt bad for him. Not knowing what it was you did or where you were from was one thing but to not even know your name; that must be very painful and upsetting. A name was the core to a person's identity. It was how they could present themselves to others; but how could you introduce yourself if all you could say was, 'hi, my name is….ugh…nice to meet you'?

Thankfully it was the end of the week so she could try and help him remember more over the weekend. The question was, what could she do to help him?

Well that was chapter 1. Woo. We'll see how things go huh?

Next time! Chapter 2 - Fist Flying, Memory Frying