A/N: I'll probably only update this once or twice weekly due to my extreme hatred of having someone watching me while I write. This is set after the Soul-Society arc and before the Bount one. I'm also pretty sure his age wouldn't match up, but that's why it's AU eh? I added Lilin and her group in once or twice for fun too btw.

IMPORTANT: I view the Vaizard as completely unneeded, so I had Yoruichi teach Ichigo a few more things when she helped him get his Bankai. First off, I believe that Ichigo absorbed part of the Hougyoku when he took Rukia's power (if the manga proves this, then sorry, but I don't read it, so I don't know yet). So I figure Urahara should have recognized his own invention in Ichigo, and have Yoruichi train him on how to use his hollow while they were in the training room replica. So Ichigo can use his hollow transformation for 11 seconds, like he now in the anime. I also decided to have Yoruichi help him improve his speed after he got back from the Soul Society, so if he seems fast, thats why. Those are the only changes I've made as of now, enjoy!

Summary: Ichigo's summer changed his life in many ways, almost all of them are good.

Summer of Changes

Chapter 1

Ichigo Kurosaki walked down the street, feeling extremely happy, as yet another year of high school had come to a close. He had absolutely nothing to worry about at that moment. Hollows had become scarce in Karakura Town throughout his now finished Junior year of high school, he was actually starting to worry about suffering from too much boredom. Little did he know, that thought would be considered insane by the end of the day.

The school bell rang, signaling the end of the school year. Ichigo looked up, shrugging the thoughts of a certain golden-eyed goddess of flash off, as he saw Chiruzu attack Inoue with one of her usual "hugs", Ichigo preferred to use the correct term of "groping" to describe them though. Sighing, he looked over towards the door, just in time to land a kick in the middle of a rapidly incoming Keigo's face. Stepping over him, Ichigo started towards the doorway as Mizuiru fell into step beside him.

"What're you planning on doing over the summer?" Mizuiru asked, dodging Keigo, having recovered from his earlier "condition", as he skipped down the hall yelling about freedom.

"Dunno, whatever comes up I guess, haven't got anything planned yet." Ichigo casually replied.

"Sounds like a summer" responded Mizuiru sarcastically, "though having an entire summer to be lazy does sound nice..."

Ichigo merely grunted in response as the pair reached the outside doors of the school and split up in the directions of their houses after a quick "See ya" to each other.

Upon entering his home, Ichigo dodged an airborne kick from his obviously sane father, sending him flying out the open doorway. Ichigo raised an eyebrow and quickly shut the door before his father could recover, locking the door on his way further into the house.

He passed by the kitchen, hugging Yuzu while waving to Karin for a second as he traveled upstairs. After entering his room and dropping his bag on the floor, he looked up to an extremely humorous sight.

Apparently Kon hadn't learned when to keep his mouth shut yet, and by the way Lilin was currently tearing him apart, it appeared that he was responsible for the marker mustache currently adoring the chicken-like doll's face. Ichigo cracked a slight grin at the two, before realizing his substitute shinigami badge was going crazy.

Opting not to use Kon on his body while he was away, due to certain "revengeful" feeling he might have, the cleaver wielding shinigami jumped out of the window and towards the hollow.

Upon arriving at the scene where the hollow was, Ichigo noticed a few things that weren't quite right. Turns out said hollow was actually two low leveled Arrancar, they were currently cornering what looked to be like a fourth division shinigami.

'Weird, why would any shinigami other than the one assigned to here be in Karakura, and from fourth division nonetheless' Ichigo thought as he made his presence known by a small burst of spirit energy.

The two Arrancar turned on him, one finding a Getsuga Tenshou heading right at him. He ducked below it as the other Arrancar, bird like in appearance (not spending much detail describing weak ones), shot toward Ichigo. Using it's wing-like arms to fly while a cero formed in its' mouth as he flew at Ichigo, said shinigami dodged the cero and cleaved off one of its' arms at the shoulder joint. This made him easy prey for another Getsuga Tenshou.

Turning back towards the other Arrancar, Ichigo knew from the way he was trembling that he was the weaker of the two. So he shunpo'd past him, cleanly slicing the foe in half midway through the shunpo, as he landed neatly on his feet in front of the somewhat awed fourth division shinigami.

After the medical shinigami recovered from his stupor, he first apologized profusely to Ichigo, and then seemingly remembered his mission, This came as a surprise to Ichigo as he pulled a letter out of his pouch and handed it to Ichigo, running off back to the soul society afterwards.

Ichigo looked down at the letter to find it signed by none other than Captain-Commander Yamamoto (AN:dunno the exact translation of his title off the top of my head) himself. He opened it on the spot and read it.

Ichigo Kurosaki

Upon discussing the issue with the other ten captains, we've come to a decision on an extremely important issue. Before that though, let me explain something, there are three ways to become a Captain of Soul Society. First, you must pass a series of tests by at least 3 Captains; second, you must be recommended by 6 Captains and 3 of the remaining 7 must approve; third, you must beat a current Captain in front of at least 200 division members.

Your name was recommended by Captains Unohana, Zaraki, Ukitake, Kyouraku, Hitsugaya, and Kuchiki. You were approved by myself and Captain Komamura. The remaining two captains with to see your strength first-hand before making their decisions on the matter, when you are through reading this, channel a small amount of spirit energy into your substitute badge. A Hell Butterfly with then appear to lead you to Soul Society, where you'll be given instructions from there.

Captain-Commander Yamamoto

Also, Renji Abarai has also been chosen as a possible captain, but has yet to be voted on.

It took Ichigo about five minutes before he re-gained the ability to think. The Soul Society wanted him to be a captain, he even got as far as to only need one more approval before actually gaining the position. He couldn't count all he felt at that moment, but happiness and excitement overwhelmed most of his senses. He was so absorbed in his thoughts, that he didn't noticed a black cat with gold eyes land on his shoulder, and start to read the still open letter frozen in his hand.

He looked back down to the letter and skimmed over it, this time realizing that Renji was also a possible Captain. This made him a little more confident in his abilities, he knew he was still stronger than Renji, so his current strength must not be too bad for a Captain, right?

"Stop worrying so much, the Captains may be intimidating, but your just as strong as most of them" A sudden voice brought him out of his thoughts as he looked to his shoulder, finding Yoruichi in her cat form sitting comfortably.

He locked eyes with her for a moment, but neither found them able to break away. Yoruichi had caught herself thinking about the very eyes she was staring in to throughout the day, as had Ichigo. Both of them had shaken the thoughts off and gone on denying whatever feelings were connected to them though.

The sound of a dog's bark was able to break their gaze though, and after glancing at the letter in his hand, Ichigo remembered that he had to use his substitute badge to get the Hell Butterfly.

"Hey, Yoruichi, you up for a trip to Soul Society?" Ichigo asked, a slight grin on his face.

"Why not? This should be fun to see." the cat replied, with what might be a smirk.

"One thing first though..." Ichigo said, going slightly red.

Yoruichi sent him a questioning gaze as she eyed the slight redness on his face.

"Go get some clothes."

So, after much teasing from Yoruichi ("Aw...but I love your blush"), the two headed off to Soul Society. Both of them following the Hell Butterfly that came from Ichigo's substitute badge. After what seemed like hours due to his nervousness, Ichigo finally emerged on the hill where Rukia was to be executed a while ago, followed by Yoruichi.

Said goddess of flash noticed his eyes darting everywhere, and decided to calm him down a little.

"Ichigo, settle down, you'll do fine. You're plenty strong enough to hold your own against a Captain." Yoruichi soothed, as she placed a somewhat uncharacteristic hand on his shoulder.

Ichigo turned towards her, somewhat relieved by her seriousness, before saying thanking her.

After taking a deep breath, he looked out over Soul Society, and realized that he had no idea what to do. Yoruichi shook her head after seeing him turn towards her with his eyebrows raised, so, he sighed and sat down, beginning to release small bursts of spirit energy to announce his presence.

After a minute or two, Captain-Commander Yamamoto appeared, closely followed by every last one of the Captains. Yamamoto waited for a minute, the reason became apparent soon afterward as the Vice-Captains of each squad started to show up too. Once all 21 shinigami were there (Hinamori was still recovering from the Aizen incident), the Captain-Commander began to speak.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, you were called here for a possible position among the 13 Captains. As of now, you only need one more approval to gain that title. It will come from either Captain Soi Fon, or Captain Kurotshuchi. Both of them, along with most of the other Captains and Vice-Captains, have yet to witness your strength first hand, and are reluctant to give their approval before they see you fight."

Taking the pause as a sign that the Captain-Commander wanted a response, Ichigo nodded.

"You will be fighting a Captain to prove yourself, Soi Fon has volunteered to be the one to test you."

Yoruichi's eyes narrowed slightly at this, she knew how far Soi Fon would go to prove herself better than her old master's newest student. With the knowledge she taught Ichigo while he was obtaining his Bankai though, Soi Fon might be in over her head. The only ones here that knew of Ichigo's true strength, was really only Byakuya. Yamamoto's voice shook her out of her thoughts though, as she moved towards the sidelines with the rest of the Captains and Vice-Captains.

"Are you ready to begin, Ichigo Kurosaki?"

"Yeah, lets get this started" replied Ichigo, as he turned to face a smirking Soi Fon.

A/N: First chapter finished, be sure you read the notice thing at the top though, things will get confusing if you didn't. Next update in a day or two, seeing as how I just kinda left you with a cliffhanger there.