Prologue

Disclaimer: This is the only time ill say it, I don't own Bleach. It belongs to Tite Kubo.

If I did indeed own Bleach, I would be nicer than releasing twenty pages of GUT WRENCHING CLIFFHANGER each week.

Ichigo and Rukia also would have gotten together by now :P that's right, I'm a shipper!

The raven haired girl stood upon a pole overlooking the town of Karakura.

"It is near." The girl said into the dark night, her usually stoic features becoming a frown, "Strange… I sense enormous reiatsu nearby."

"That just means be more careful Rukia." A voice inside the girls mind resounded, "And that means no getting yourself killed either! Do you hear me?"

This last remark turned the girls frown into a wry smile, "I understand Shirayuki-dono, I promise to be careful."

"You better be." Came the muttered reply as the voice slowly faded from the girls hearing.

The girl that went by the name of Kuchiki Rukia smiled slightly at this as she folded up her map and disappeared into the shadows.

Sode no Shirayuki sighed deeply as she gazed at the delicate surroundings inside her wielders spirit world. The pure white colour of the snow that was falling had always seemed so peaceful…like home.

She would not want to admit it to Rukia but she felt troubled. Like her wielder, she too could sense the enormous reiatsu nearby. However, unlike Rukia she could sense how vast it truly was. It was easily as large as the reiatsu belonging to Rukia's brother, Byakuya, and he was a captain class Shinigami. However this reiatsu was somehow less refined.

Her interest being roused by this unusual reiatsu, Sode no Shirayuki reached out with her mind, trying to at least locate the location this powerful force. Her mind brushed against it and the reiatsu suddenly wrapped around her, and a strange vision assaulted her eyes.

She was sitting in a boy's bedroom, staring at a young teenager of around fifteen with a scowl on his face and bright orange hair. He tossed and turned in his bed, mumbling to himself.

And just as violently as she was drawn into it, Shirayuki wrenched away from the reiatsu that was holding her captive, and the vision disappeared.

"Shirayuki-dono? Are you alright?" Rukia's concerned voice broke through the distant fog around Shirayuki's thoughts.

"Ah, Rukia." Shirayuki replied, trying to slow her racing pulse. "Do not concern yourself with me, I am fine. You should be worried about yourself… and your surroundings. I do believe that I told you to be careful of yourself." She said.

"Oh... I apologise for interrupting your thoughts Shirayuki, I will leave you to yourself." And Rukia's voice faded away.

With Rukia gone Sode no Shirayuki once more tried to slow her pulse and calm her ragged breathing.

"What in the world was that." Shirayuki tried to answer this question but she just couldn't find a solution to it. If she had any doubts about it before, they had now vanished. That reiatsu was indeed the most powerful she had ever encountered over her 150 year existence. But there was something more... there was something strange about this extraordinary power that Shirayuki just couldn't put her finger on it.

Coming to a decision, Sode no Shirayuki steeled herself and reached out again with her mind to the place where she found the other reiatsu before. But she didn't make contact with it, she merely hovered and 'observed'. By doing this she had found what she had thought was strange.

The power inside that boy was dormant

Shirayuki went cold. Well, as colder than a being of ice usually is. Dormant? Impossible! The idea that that something so powerful was unused, inactive, it was simply terrifying. It also raised many questions that Sode no Shirayuki had no answer to.

Was this a human boy… or a Shinigami?

If he is indeed human, how did he acquire such power?

And what would happen if this power reached its full potential?

He had looked familiar. Had she known him from somewhere else?

Could he possibly be the one mentioned in the...?!

She was getting worked up, it was not at all like her, unbecoming of the ice queen of soul society.

Still…

Right now she didn't really want to know. At the moment she needed more knowledge about this immensely powerful reiatsu. And while because did not know enough about it, she would have to keep a careful eye on her wielder. Once again, Sode no Shirayuki sighed. If things continued in this fashion, it would be a long night.

Kurosaki Ichigo rose from his bed with a start. He was covered in a cold sweat from this strange pressure. He felt a freezing presence that had swept through his mind. He had tried to reach out to it but it had recoiled. After a short absence it had returned, forceful, yet hovering just out of reach. It was strange that when that presence had come into contact with his mind something, inside of him, had responded. Ichigo didn't know what it had been and it frightened him.

Ugh, brain freeze.

Ichigo looked at the clock beside him. It was 9.30pm. Ugh he thought, he didn't have time to be thinking of such things. Why did he decide to take a nap? He shook his head to clear it of the presence, and began his homework, knowing nothing of what had just transpired or the fact that he had been the source of it.

But no one knew of, or could guess what was to come…

A/N

Hello, hello, how is everyone today? This is my first fanfic and I am quite proud of it considering that I thought of the idea while doing my maths semester test!!! Bwa ha ha ha. A big SHOUT goes out to my bestest buddy TsugiNoMai, who helped me work out the bugs in this chapter. Oh yeah.... btw I have a bit of a habit of using big words that no one understands so if im doing so just tell me and I will fix it. And at the moment, I am offering a deal, you review my story and I review yours. Equivalent exchange XD (FMA joke) se ya laters my lovely friends

- Flying-Plum