Ok, so this is my first fanfic. I've been carrying this idea around in my head for a long while, so it's good to finally get it on record. Also, I'll be using ost scenes for this fanfic. The way that works is that I will state the ost name at the beginning of the scene, and if you so choose, you can select the corresponding clip from youtube and play it while reading the scenes. You might find it a bit tiresome, but music really changes the feel of what you're reading. This fiction starts just after the soul society arc of bleach. With that being said...

...oh, I almost forgot:I DO NOT OWN BLEACH.

1 Reunion

Kazuya Lee stared at the mass of buildings before him. How many times had he done this before? He couldn't remember . That slightly disturbed him, but he was used to that feeling by now. The only thing that he could be even vaguely certain of was how long he had been doing this - fifteen years, give or take a few months. Fifteen years since that disaster ripped apart his family. Still, wallowing in his sorrow was something he left behind a long time ago. Now, the only emotion he could ever remember feeling was determination. Cold, hard, implacable determination. For his task (self set, but none the less important because of it) was still not complete. Jaw set with the stubbornness that everyone that had known him knew , he entered the city. Physically, he wasn't a very imposing structure- brown hair that swept the forefront of his head, black eyes, and a body that looked like it belonged to a 14 year old with a slim build- but his eyes spoke a hardness about him that his looks covered up. This city was different from the others he had visited before. It possessed an unusual amount of the energy that he used to fight those masked creeps. But that didn't really mean anything to him. Then, he felt something...

A curious sense of contentment...

A feeling of warmth in his chest...

And a nervous type of excitement...

What in the world would that mean?

He wanted to think that his goal was close, that the one he had searched for was near but...

He just couldn't bring himself to hope for it...

He continued on through the city, minding it's inhabitants, thought they ignored him, while listening to the monotonous sound of the chains on his chest clanking against each other.

Though it was night time, there were still a few people out and about. However, there weren't any that could see him, as he sometimes found. No matter. That would just make reconnaissance easier.

'Don't think I've seen you around here before.'

A voice cut through Kazuya's mental deliberations. He turned to face the speaker: an orange haired teenager about a year or two older than he himself appeared to be. Unfortunately, he was clothed in a black kimono, with a giant sword attached to his back. Kazuya groaned inwardly.

"shinigami," he thought.

He had had his first encounter with these soldiers a few years ago. Since then , he had learned to avoid them at all costs. However, this one looked different. Younger. That wasn't just his appearance, but the way he held himself and the lack of seriousness in his eye. It took Kazuya a moment to find his voice after weeks of silence to reply.

'I'm just passing through .'

The teen quirked an eyebrow. 'You don't seem to be too surprised that I can see you.'

'I had that experience a long time ago... and you're not the only one that can see me.'

That explanation didn't really satisfy him, and Kazuya could tell so from his expression. An awkward silence replaced their conversation.

'So, how long have you been travelling? What exactly are you looking for?'

Kazuya started at that question. 'What makes you think I'm looking for something in the first place?'

The teen snorted.' If it wasn't so, then you would have left this world a long time ago. You do realise you're dead, right? That's why you have these chains attached to your chest.'

'Dead, huh...' said Kazuya absentmindedly. ' I figured as much.'

The teen looked at him with something similar to suspicion. 'Just how long have you been travelling? ' he asked again.

Kazuya didn't bother answering. It would only lead to more trouble than he had time for right now.

The man seemed to understand his hesitation. 'Well, be as that may, this is my town, so just let me know if you need anything. The name's Ichigo, by the way. Ichigo Kurosaki. '

'Thank you for the offer, Kurosaki-san. My name is Kazuya Lee. Now if you'll excuse me, I must be going.' With that, Kazuya pushed past the shinigami and continued on his way. "a little luck for once,"he thought. Usually, meetings with those people didn't end so smoothly, with them trying to send him somewhere he didn't understand. Apparently, this Kurosaki wasn't that type.

Squaring his shoulders, he continued with his search.

Ichigo stared after the receding form of the plus as he walked away."the most level headed soul I've ever seen", he thought. And it was true. Usually, souls that stayed in the living world for a while became hollows before long. Even before that change, however, the souls were fundamentally different from other living people-their need for friendship or their loneliness ,to name but a few charectars. That was also the reason he just didn't konso pluses upon first sight. Usually, he tried to fulfill their last wishes before sending them to soul society. But this soul wasn't like that. Hell, the only reason he wasn't sleeping right now was because he had been disturbed by a strange reiatsu.

Astoundingly, that had belonged to just a plus. " .hell?" That was just plain weird. It was near impossible for him to comprehend that a mere plus had that much reiryoku. But what truly disturbed him were the eyes. Completely devoid of any emotion but determination. God knew what it was for. If he trusted his instincts, that plus had been in that form for about as long as he had been alive. However, that was ridiculous. Pluses couldn't stay in the world of the living for too long without turning into hollows. But that still didn't explain the pluses strange behaviour. "ah, whatever." thought ichigo. He was missing his sleep, and he had class tomorrow. He jumped into a shunpo and made his way home.

Orihime inoue let out a sigh of contentment as she lay down on her mattress in her room for the first time in what seemed like ages. It had just been on that day that she, ichigo, sado, and uryu had returned from the soul society after rescuing rukia. Quite an eventful vacation if she said so herself. Tomorrow, classes would start again. She winced as she imagined tatsuki's expression.

'Where were you this vacation orihime?! I was worried sick!'

Yeah, she would have to think of a good excuse... maybe a trip to a distant relatives marriage? That would have to do, probably.

Well, such thoughts could wait.

Turning onto her side, she promptly fell asleep. She was exhausted, after all.

Only to be startled awake by the scream of a hollow outside her apartment.

A few minutes ago

( play bleach ost: precipice of defeat)

Something was wrong. Kazuya could feel it. That weird sense of contentment that he had felt upon entering the town was still there, and that feeling was now amplified. The part that worried him, however, was the feeling of danger that he had come to associate with the masked creeps. If he trusted his instincts, then an attack was about to happen. But the nervous feeling that he was getting now far eclipsed anything that he had ever felt before. He would have avoided that source of energy usually, but something was holding him back. He just didn't know what that something was.

"no point in dragging out the inevitable. " . With that thought, he began charging up his energy to attract the masked creep, wherever it was. The technique he used always managed to attract them without fail, but if he limited the duration to a very short while, then he would only attract the nearest monsters. Or so he hoped...

Just as he released the energy into the air in a burst, he saw a crack appear in the sky. A huge arm came out of it followed by a huge masked creep. And it was humongous. It was as tall as a skyscraper, with a pure white mask , a pointed nose, a collar of spikes around its neck, and a flowing black cloak(or was it a dress?) that covered the rest of its body. The only thing larger that it right now was Kazuya's growing sense of horror. The creep opened its mouth, steam billowing out , and loosed a hackle raising roar.

"Hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow,..."

Ichigo sat bolt upright. Then he groaned. It was midnight, dammit. Couldn't those hollows limit themselves to daylight hours? Well, apparently not. Nonchalantly, ichigo raised his squawking shinigami pass to his chest in preparation to leave his body. Then froze in shock. The reiatsu he was feeling was so large, it could only belong to a menos grande. " impossible!" he thought. The only time a Gillian had set foot before in karakura town was when ishida used his hollow bait, and even then, that had still been unprecedented. For a Gillian to show up now, so randomly...

Something was going on.

And ichigo was going to find out which stupid menos had the nerve to invade his hometown.

Leaving his body, he jumped through the window and made his way towards the errant hollow. To his utter horror, it was just outside orihime's apartment.

Redoubling his speed , he raced onwards.

Kazuya thought he knew fear. Turns out, he didn't know it as well as he felt it right now. His legs were turning to jelly, his knees were on the verge of buckling, and he seemed to be frozen in place. The only thing that kept him from loosing consciousness was the strange feeling that he had. Why was he still feeling that while staring at a monster the size of a building? Was he hallucinating? But one couldn't hallucinate with a feeling. Then was this a side effect of the town?

Possibly.

Then Kazuya dove to the side to avoid the giant creeps foot stomping down on him from above. Cursing, he got to his feet, and started to charge up his energy in his fists and feet. He knew he wouldn't be able to outrun the monster , seeing that it's single stride would cover a football field. He also didn't want to leave the town, at least until he understood what was causing his emotional turmoil. So that left one option.

(End ost scene)

Jumping up high, towards the monsters midsection, he channelled all the excess energy that he could into a single punch. The monster also simultaneously punched at him with its left fist. The two collided with an almost deafening boom.

Kazuya would have thought "Well, there goes any chance of exiting unnoticed."

Except he was too busy flying downwards. The masked creeps power was so great that it completely overwhelmed his own and blasted him towards the ground. He landed with a bone shattering smash, and cracked open his eyes just in time to see the giants foot coming down on top of him. There was no way he would be able to dodge that in time. Uselessly crossing his arms over his chest in a lame attempt to protect himself, Kazuya braced for impact.

"So this is how it ends." Fifteen years of searching, just to be crushed under a giants boot. Just before he was smashed flat, a familiar voice shouted out:

'SANTEN KESSHUN!'

Kazuya's blood ran cold just as his face flushed with warmth. He had heard that voice before.

The giants foot crashed into an orange triangle shaped shield. Which, amazingly didn't even crack under the load. The monster stomped a few more times on the shield, producing a deafening racket.

Kazuya didn't hear it.

He was too busy staring at the girl who was standing on the roof of the adjacent apartment, and who was apparently maintaining the shield.

Flowing orange hair, silver eyes, and a beautiful face. Just as he remembered.

' Are you alright?' the girl called down to him.

Kazuya couldn't answer. The realisation of who was standing before him was too much for his brain to process at once.

However, the giant masked creep had no such problems. He whirled toward the girl and started to punch at her. Kazuya suddenly regained controlled of all his faculties. He couldn't allow this girl to be hurt! She was his-

'ONEE-SAN! LOOK OUT!' he screamed , not noticing that the shield above him had vanished.

Just before the giant hit her, the orange shield materialised in front of her, and stopped the monsters punch. Seemingly infuriated, it loosed out a barrage of punches onto the shield. None of which broke through.

The masked creep let out an earth shattering roar, almost pushing Kazuya back.

It then began to form some sort of red energy into a ball in front of its open mouth.

A growing sense of horror dawned on Kazuya as he realised what was about to happen.

Before he even had time to cry out, the red orb exploded toward the girl as a red beam.

The beam hit her shield and stopped, but he heard a sound-that of a glass sheet cracking.

Sure enough, the shield was slowly splintering under the force of the attack. The girl behind it had her arms held toward the shield, but her face was contorted in pain.

Kazuya had no time for words. Jumping to the apartments roof, he ran towards the girl, heart pounding, and pushed her to the side just as the shield broke with the sound of a shattering glass vase. The red beam consumed him, and for a second, his entire body was wracked with pain. It felt like every cell of his body was being burnt to a crisp. Then, as the energy expended itself, he fell to the ground, and his memory ceased.

'NO!' Shouted orihime as the cero enveloped the plus. Why had he done that?!

Before she could contemplate the fact, ichigo appeared out of nowhere and sliced the menos in half with a giant getsuga tensho. With a forlorn wail, the hollow melted into oblivion.

' Orihime! What happened to that plus?'

'He jumped in front of the hollows cero and pushed me out of the way!'

So saying, she knelt in front of the soul and quickly called out her rikka. 'Soten kisshun, I reject! '

An orange dome appeared over the plus and began to heal his burnt skin. The soul had sustained a lot of damage in that last attack, and he was in very bad shape. He needed to be healed, urgently.

'Can you move him while he's being healed?' asked ichigo.

Orihime looked at him and frowned

'Yes, but why-'

' That plus isn't normal. I met him before when he entered town, and...' he trailed off, and his eyebrow creased in concern.

'What happened, kurosaki-kun?'

Now orihime was getting worried too.

Ichigo took a while to answer, and when he did, it wasn't as she had hoped.

' Just take him over to urahara-sans's . He needs to know about this. '

Orihime bit her lip, and spared a worried glance at the plus. He was still unconscious, but the burns on his body were healing. She would have no problem healing him while she moved...

Raising her arms, the Soten kisshun followed her movement, and floated up to mid chest level. She began to move toward the urahara shop, when she realised that ichigo had already disappeared. He must have used a shunpo to get to urahara quickly. Orihime walked at a sedate pace, constantly monitoring the plusses healing. One question, however, kept reverberating through her: why had this soul called her his sister?

Ichigo , as he ended his shunpo, found himself at the door of the urahara shop. Hat'n'clogs really needed to know about that plus . He behaved as if he had been around for a long time, which in itself was unsettling, but what ichigo really wanted to know was why a Gillian had attacked the same day that the soul had entered karakura, when they usually didn't appear in his home town . He didn't really care that it was the middle of the night right now, he just wanted answers. No matter how much of his valuable sleep that he had to sacrifice in order to get them. Walking towards the door, he raised an arm to knock, but the door opened before he could, revealing a yawning ururu.

' Urahara-san is waiting for you in the main room' she said in her usual sad voice.

Ichigo was surprised that she was even awake before remembering that she was probably awakened by the Gillian's reiatsu. The same probably applied for everyone in the urahara shop.

'Thanks, ururu. ' He proceeded to walk towards the main room, where he opened the door to find urahara already seated, and sipping from a glass of green tea.

' Ah, Kurosaki-san. To what do I owe this midnight meeting? '

Ichigo gave him a flat look. He was pretty sure that hat'n'clogs was just messing with him, but it was still annoying.

'A weird plus wandered into town today...' ichigo started. He was sure that urahara knew about the menos attack, so he thought it would be better to start off with the part that urahara wouldn't know about.

' And what did you find so weird about him?'

' He knew that he was dead, for one, and he said that he was just passing through town. It was as if he was in the middle of doing something important. What really bugged me were his mannerisms. He acted like he was used to the idea of being dead and that he had time to get used to it. Do you think that's normal?'

Urahara set his cup down and momentarily assumed an expression of seriousness.

'While that may not be completely ordinary, those facts do not explain why the menos was after him in the first place. That is the only logical conclusion I can arrive at with such limited information- that the Gillian was attracted by him. That the soul must have a high level of reiatsu is a given, but if he had so much, the he would have been swallowed up long ago by a lesser hollow . Which completely contradicts your observation that he has been in the living world for quite a while. And it also presents the problem that in order to attract a Gillian, the souls reiatsu must be ridiculously high, which is something I've never seen before in a plus. To have a more concrete theory, I would have to examine him more closely.'

'Well, he is on his way here...'

' You didn't perform konso on him? '

'There was the fact that he was almost vaporised by a cero, so I decided it would be better for inoue to heal him before sending him to soul society. Speaking of which, they should be here any moment.'

Urahara's serious expression intensified. ' A normal plus would most definitely have been destroyed by a gillian's cero. That fact that he survived means... '

Ichigo didn't like the way that sentence was phrased. 'Means what?'

Urahara shook his head, and uttered three words that ichigo had never heard him say before.

'I don't know.'

Before ichigo could even process the implications of that, the door to the hall opened, and Orihime stepped in, with the soul encased in a dome of orange light following her.

Ichigo spoke first.' Is he healed yet, inoue?'

Orihime shook her head. ' Almost, kurosaki-kun, but not quite.'

'Well then, the best thing to do would be to continue to heal him. Inoue-san, if you don't mind...' Urahara gestured towards a vacant bedroom.

'No, that's fine urahara-san.' Orihime then made her way into the room and settled the plus onto a spare mattress while continuing to heal him.

"Just who are you? " orihime wondered as she placed her hands on the kisshun barrier.

As Kazuya slowly regained consciousness, He expected to feel a whole lot of pain, but instead, he felt nothing but a pleasant warmth. Cracking open his eyes, he saw that he was encased in an orange barrier, and that someone had placed him on a mattress. No wonder he felt warm. Just as he sat up however, the barrier faded, and as he tried to gather his bearings, a voice sounded from beside him.

'Well, good morning. Are you feeling better now?'

Still too scared to accept that what he was hearing was really being spoken and not some figment of his imagination, he slowly turned his head towards the voice.

It was her.

The person he had been searching for fifteen years.

His onee-san.

His sister.

The one he had been separated from so long ago.

Without him even noticing, his eyes filled with tears, which began streaming down his face. ' I finally found you...' he said to her in a quivering voice.

She frowned at him, concerned. 'Are you all right?'

Kazuya jumped up and tackled her with a hug, all the while crying with relief .

'I'll never let you go again, onee-san!' he cried onto her stomach.

Orihime couldn't remember ever being more confused in her life that she was at that point. The words coming from the souls mouth made absolutely no sense to her. However, even she could understand that he was not in a very good emotional state right now. She wouldn't need to ask him what he meant until he calmed down. Stroking his head, she began to console the spirit crying on her.

'Hey , it's alright...'

And done! That's it for the first chapter of 'The flower's stem.' Weird title name huh? But I seriously couldn't come up with anything better than that. The next chapter will have a whole lot of exposition, where I try to make all this stuff credible. So stick with the story if you find it interesting and please do review!

Thestormwriter123 signing out!

See ya!