This is my second attempt at fanfic. This takes place just after the Winter War. Ichigo still has his soul reaper powers, but they are starting to fade from over use. Also - if you see anything in parentheses, it's being said in English. everything else is being said in Japanese.

I do not own Bleach, I just like to borrow the characters and take them out for a spin every now and then.

"Sensitivity training?! Are you fucking kidding me?" Roared the tall and imposing captain of the 11th division.

The other captains at the captain's meeting tried their best to suppress chuckles and smiles as the head captain ordered Kenpachi Zaraki to the human world to realize what it is like to be weak. He had recently been on a mission where he had allowed souls to die while he had drawn out a battle in order to get the most out of it. He would not be stripped of all of his spiritual pressure, but he would be marked with several spiritual pressure seals and under strict orders to not leave his gigai under threat of immediate expulsion from the court guards and possible execution.

"You were not there to indulge your blood lust, Zaraki. You were there to protect those souls and you failed! I am only allowing you this opportunity to prove yourself because I do recognize that you can be an asset. We will be monitoring you and the Kurisoki boy will be sending in regular reports. You are not to tell him why you are there or try to influence his reports at all. Am I understood?" Yamamoto demanded.

Knowing that the only answer that wouldn't get him thrown in a cell and prepped for execution was an answer in the affirmative, he gave a very reluctant and anger edged, "Yes, Sir."

The meeting was dismissed and Zaraki immediately had the seals placed upon his chest and his eye patch was removed. He already missed the spiritual pressure and his right eye felt odd without the eye patch on. He resisted the urge to hold the eye closed. They had left him just enough spiritual pressure to be able to see hollows and soul reapers in the human world. He hated that he wouldn't be able to do anything and had, in fact, been forbidden from fighting hollows while away from the soul society. He was to sit by and watch Ichigo do all the work. This was going to be the worst experience of his life without even Yachiru to keep him company.

He had been given something called a credit card for clothing and food needs. They had apparently already bought the house next to Ichigo and it was fully furnished. He was escorted to the gate and his zampakuto was taken from him. He went through and arrived in front of a sweets shop. Kiske Urahara was standing in front of it waiting for the captain to show up.

"Ah, Captain Zaraki. It's good to see you. If you'll follow me, I'll get your gigai ready."

Zaraki growled and followed the strange man into the store. He was handed a gigai that was fully dressed. He put it on and was satisfied that Kiske hadn't dressed him like a dork. He was wearing dark jeans, a dark green button down short sleeved shirt and a pair of black leather boots. He saw that the gigai's hair was down instead of in his spikes and decided not to fuss about it. He had been thinking he was due for a change. Maybe he'd grow his hair out. He moved and noticed he rattled. He looked around for the cause of the noise and noticed a chain going from a belt loop to a wallet. He pulled out the wallet and took a look inside. He had an ID card in it. That was all. He took the credit card he had been given and put that in one of the slots and put the wallet back into his pocket.

He left the room and Kiske was waiting for him. "This way, captain." He followed and was led to Ichigo who was chatting with Tesai. When Ichigo spotted Kenpachi, he paled slightly and backed a step or two away.

"Um, I was told to take you to your house, Kenpachi." He said nervously.

As an answer, he growled. Ichigo took that as his cue to start leading. He started back towards his house and Zaraki followed. As they walked, Ichigo tried to talk to the large captain but was met with silence and growls.

They arrived at a large house and Ichigo stopped. "This is where you'll be staying. Here are the keys." He handed over the house keys to Kenpachi. "If you need anything, I'm next door." He pointed to a window, "If you don't want to deal with any of my family, that window is my bedroom window."

Kenpachi grunted and walked towards the house that he would be staying at. After looking it over, he finally sat down on a couch, put his head in his hands and gave in to the depression he was beginning to feel. Who knew this was what it was like to feel so weak. Sure he still had his physical strength, but compared to what he was used to, this was weak.

He laid down and fell asleep hoping that the time he was here would pass by quickly. When he awoke, it was the middle of the night. He got up and decided to walk around the neighborhood. He eventually got lost and ran into Ichigo who was out on a hollow alert. He had just finished and was heading back home. Ichigo fell into step beside Zaraki.

"Really, Kenpachi, Why are they making me send in reports about you?" He was met with silence and a glare.

"Ok, you don't want to tell me. Are you ok? You don't seem yourself."

He growled a little and then answered shortly, "I'm fine."

"Is Yachiru ok?" Ichigo asked gently, knowing that she seemed to be the only person the man beside him cared about.

A little stunned at the question, he replied, "Why would you ask that? She's fine."

"I just couldn't understand why you seem so depressed is all. It was the only thing I could think of."

"Stop asking me questions about it. I don't want to talk about it." He growled. Damn kid is being so nosy. He thought to himself.

"Ok. I'm free tomorrow if you need to go clothes or grocery shopping."

Kenpachi just nodded. Soon he saw the house he was staying in and they each went their separate ways.

The next afternoon he decided that he should probably buy some clothing and as the cupboards were only stocked with a few food staples, he should take Ichigo up on his offer. He walked over to the house and saw that the kid's window was open. He went to leap up to the ledge to pull himself up, but was stunned when he couldn't jump as high as he used to. Maybe a little higher than a normal human could, but nowhere near what he was used to.

Annoyed, he called up, "Hey, Ichigo."

The red head popped his head out the window. "Oh, hey Kenpachi. Did you want to go shopping?"

A little disgusted at the prospect of shopping, he replied with a disgruntled, "Yeah."

"I'll be right down." His head disappeared and the window was closed. A few minutes later he was out the door. "This way." He said and led the captain to the shopping district.

At the clothing store that would carry clothing in the big man's size, Ichigo helped by showing what size would fit him and some odds and ends that Kenpachi might not think of such as underwear. They dropped the clothing off at the house and came back for the groceries as Kenpachi had needed a bit of everything.

They were walking down the street when Ichigo recognized a coworker flipping through a large book, studying what was written in it and then looking up at signs. Frustration was evident on her face as she angrily flipped through the book. As they walked towards her, a man walked up behind her and grabbed her breasts from behind and was starting to jiggle them. She quickly dropped the book, grabbed his arm and flipped him over her shoulder, causing him to land on his back, looking up at her. She quickly crouched down and punched him in the face.

"(What the fuck is your problem!)" She screamed at him.

Ichigo had started moving quickly towards her when the man had grabbed her and had to move aside when she flipped him in order to avoid being inadvertently kicked by the man. He saw she was pulling back for another punch and quickly pulled her away, "Sara! Don't. He's had enough and if you keep punching him, the police will show up." To the man on the ground, "What the hell is wrong with you? You don't just go around grabbing women like that. Apologize!" He had placed his foot on the man's chest and was pushing down hard on him while keeping Sara behind him.

Zaraki watched this all impassively. He had to admit, the girl did show some quick reflexes. What had she said? It sounded like another language. She was kinda pale, but then he noticed that her eyes were more round. Hmph, must not be Japanese. He thought to himself. He gave her a once over and saw that she was taller than the girls he was seeing walking around here. She would come up to his collar bone. She had an athletic build and had decent sized breasts. Nothing too small, but not so large as to make her look unbalanced like Matsumoto. Her hair was past her shoulders and was a rich brown color that showed natural highlights and low lights. Her eyes were dark green and her lips were full. He briefly wondered how they would feel on his cock and then pushed the thought away. She was only a human and he had no interest in getting to know any human long enough to get them into his bed.

She was standing roughly between Zaraki and Ichigo with Zaraki slightly off to her left and hadn't even noticed the large man. Another Japanese man was sneeking up behind her and Zaraki gave a low growl to get the man's attention and glared at him while slowly shaking his head. The man realized he had something urgent to do far from there. What was up with these guys? Didn't they have any respect at all?

The man under Ichigo's foot was babbling apologies and he let the man up with a look of disgust on his face. The man quickly left and Ichigo turned back to Sara.

"Does that happen often, Sara?"

She twisted her mouth and crossed her arms which inadvertently framed her breasts nicely. "Usually it's just butt grabs, though some guy did try to kiss me once. It's so weird here. It wasn't until after I had gotten here and started encountering this that I heard that white girls like me get goosed a lot. I tried calling the police about it when I first got here, but they don't seem to care because I'm a foreigner." Her Japanese was very proper and her accent was odd.

"Hey, what did you say to that guy?" Ichigo asked.

She blushed a little and said, "I said 'what's your problem?' but I also used a curse word that doesn't translate well."

"That was English?"

"Yeah. I have to think too much to use Japanese."

"You're doing fine. What were you doing with the book?" He bent down, picked it up and handed it to her.

"Rosetta Stone is great for learning to speak a language, but not so great on teaching you to read or write in the language and I can't find any of these symbols in my book."

Kenpachi looked at the cover of the book. It was on the wrong way and there were words he couldn't read and words he could. It looked like an English to Japanese and Japanese to English translation book.

"What kind of store are you trying to find?" Ichigo asked her.

"I need to buy some pots and pans along with some groceries."

"But you've been here for what? Two weeks now? And you're just now buying pots and pans?"

She smiled by only lifting one corner of her mouth, "Yeah, well, I sank most of my money in just getting here, getting an apartment and furnishing it. I really wasn't expecting everything to be so expensive so I had to wait for my first paycheck. I'm glad we get paid weekly."

"Well, we're headed to the grocery store too, so just come with us."

"We?"

"Oh! Where are my manners? Kenpachi, this is Sara Peterson. I work with her. She's from America and recently moved here. Sara, this is Kenpachi Zaraki." Thinking quickly, he said, "He's a cousin of mine that's only recently moved out this way." He had a large grin on his face that if you knew him, meant he was lying, but because Sara hadn't known Ichigo that long, just thought he was being happy.

"Oh. It's nice to meet you (Mr.) Zaraki."

"What was that word?"

"In English when you address someone by their last name, if they are male, you use (Mr.). It's polite and I remember hearing that Japanese people prefer that you call them by their last name unless they give permission to use their first name, but I can never remember the Japanese versions. San? Chan? They kinda confuse me."

"If Kenpachi were a kid you could use chan, but male or female, you can use san. And it's used after the name."

She crinkled her nose and forehead, "That's just odd."

"Just call me Kenpachi." The large man cut in.

She smiled and said, "As you wish." With a small nod of her head.

They walked to the store together and ended up walking the isles together, with Ichigo reading some of the labels for his coworker and teasing her about it. As they shopped, Ichigo asked a barrage of questions.

"So what made you move here?" He asked.

"My fiancé and I always thought about it."

"Fiancé?"

"Yeah. He was killed by a drunk driver about two years ago now. I just really needed a change of scenery and pace. We had been learning Japanese together and when he died I kept up. Gave me something to do to keep my mind off of everything going on. My family knew we were thinking about coming to live here and encouraged me to give it a try. I had to sell my house, my car, and pretty much anything I wasn't planning on shipping over here. I hadn't counted on not being able to read anything and not being able to look anything up. I swear, this book is useless."

Ichigo took the book from her and flipped through it. "Here's your problem. This book is for a completely different dialect from what we use here." He gave the book back to her.

She closed her eyes, groaned, and tossed the book into the nearest trash can, making Kenpachi chuckle.

They found the pots and pans and Sara grabbed a box that had a little bit of everything. Ichigo took it from her and she looked at him startled, "Please don't." She said reaching for the box.
"Don't what?" He replied, confused as to why she wouldn't want him to carry the box.

Her eyes looked pleading as she said, "Ichigo, you're not my pack mule. If I can't carry what I intend to purchase, then I wouldn't buy it in the first place."

"Hey, don't worry about it." He replied. And when she reached out for the box again, pulled it away. "I said, don't worry about it. You're going to want a free hand while you grocery shop."

She looked down and away and closed her eyes and softly said, "As you wish."

Kenpachi looked at Ichigo and the kid shrugged, not understanding what the big deal was. It was just a box.

Sara and Kenpachi both only shopped for a few days' worth of food. When they finished paying, Ichigo grabbed the box of pots and pans again and smirked at Sara.

"Which way to your house?" Ichigo asked her.

She frowned at him and adjusted the two large paper bags so they could both be carried in one arm. She reached out for the box and said, "Ok, you've had your fun. Now give me my pots and pans. I wasn't kidding."

He smiled playfully, "No. Besides, you aren't going to be able to hold those bags like that long. Why are you making a bid deal out of this?"

"I just don't like to owe any one for anything if I can help it."

He shrugged, "You won't owe me. Just point the way to your apartment."

She sighed heavily and used her free arm to rub her hand across her face in exasperation. She shifted the bags so she held one in each arm and said, "Fine. This way." And lead them to her apartment. Kenpachi followed, more because he didn't know the way home then for any interest in the matter. He could respect her attitude though. Being new to a city and not wanting to inadvertently owe someone more then she really wanted to be held accountable for later. The kid wasn't one to hold things over someone's head, but if she was as new to Japan as she was saying, then she wouldn't know that about him.

She led them to an apartment that was on the first floor. She set down one of the bags and dug in her pocket for a key. She opened the door and said, "Would you like to come in for something to drink? It's a bit hotter here then I'm used to."

Ichigo smiled and replied, "Sure!"

To Kenpachi she said, "If you have anything that needs to stay cool, feel free to put it in the fridge while you're here." She began to put things away. "I have sun tea, milk, water, (Faygo), and orange juice. Anything sound good?"

"(Faygo)?" Kenpachi said the word slowly, testing the word on his tongue.

"I told my dad that I missed it and he sent me some. It's a soda brand from where I used to live. The one he sent me is called Dark Cherry." She went to a cabinet and pulled out a glass. She then pulled out a can of the Faygo and popped the top, poured some in the glass and handed it to the large man. "Give it a try. I have more if you like it." She then put the can to her lips and drank some, the taste making her smile and look far away.

Kenpachi put the glass to his lips and gave the odd beverage a try. Not bad. "I'll take a can of that." She smiled and brought him over one. He imitated how she opened it and drank from the can like she was doing. She took the glass, rinsed it out and quickly tucked it into the dish washer.

"How about you, Ichigo?" She asked as she started pulling the pots and pans out of the box and putting them into a cabinet.

"What's sun tea?"

"My mom showed me how to make it when I was young. I even paid extra to make sure I could ship the jug over." She pulled a large glass container out of the fridge. "You put water and tea bags inside and set it out where the sun will shine on it. It's best to leave it outside on a nice hot day, but all I had was the window sill. As it sits in the sun, the tea steeps and mixes with the water. I like to use Red Rose tea, but that might just be a family preference. It's served with ice and usually either lime or lemon."

"I'll give it a try."

She nodded and made him a glass of it. She sheepishly held out a pair of little squeeze bottles. One was in the shape of a lemon and the other in the shape of lime. "If I were to buy lemons or limes, they would go bad long before I could use them. These have juice from the fruits in them so if you want to flavor the sun tea, just squirt a little into the glass and give it a stir." She set them in front of him along with a spoon.

He gave it an experimental taste, "Mmm! This is really good!" He added a little lemon to the tea and tasted again. "Oh! That's nice!"

Sara smiled, "I'm glad you like it."

The smile faded from her face and she began to pale. Her face became drawn as she said, "(Oh shit, not now. Why now?)" She grabbed a large Ziploc bag and began filling it with ice as she began to hold her fingers hard to her face. Just then Ichigo's substitute badge began flashing and buzzing loudly.

Thank you for reading. Reviews are appreciated and help to motivate me to write more.